A Life Enchanting
by Emeraldiz
Summary: After Harry/Ginny fight, a teary Ginny bumps into the worst person imaginable...& finds her perceptions changing. Meanwhile Ron/Hermione help Harry plan a reconciliation dinner, but all are shocked when Ginny turns up with an unusual date in tow!
1. Encounter

A/N - This is my first fanfic, so please R & R, any comments at all would be greatly appreciated. Also want to say sorry for the overly-long Harry introduction, please bear with it, as it's setting up the story & we don't have to see him too much after this, if you're eager for the Ginny/Draco part to begin; it will! Now here follows a disclaimer for the entire story as i'm not writing this out every chapter: _Disclaimer- I don't own any of these characters, i'm just borrowing them for my story. _

**Chapter One - Encounter**

Harry woke up to the sound of a loud pop somewhere close to his left ear. Blearily, he registered the bright sunshine slanting from high up through the long thin windows signaling that it had been light for some time. He became aware also of a tugging at his left arm's pajama sleeve. Slowly he realized that it was Kreacher that had popped into his bedroom and was now insisting that he woke up.

Sluggishly his senses were returning to him. He realized with growing moroseness that Ginny was absent from the crisp, unused sheets across the bed, as she had been all week, and he begrudgingly recalled bits and pieces of the argument they had had. Unable to properly register Kreacher's vain reproaches just yet, he replayed the bitter scene over in his head despite himself, for what seemed like the millionth time. He tried not to picture her and to tune instead into Kreacher's incessant mumbling and tugging.

"Master, if you _please, _you _must _come and have breakfast now before Mistress Andromeda arrives with young master Teddy," he pressed, now a distant echo of the house elf he had become in the lonely years of solitude in No 12, Grimmauld Place. So that was why Kreacher had resorted once again to popping into the bedroom to literally drag him awake and into misery, huh.

"Oh," Harry exclaimed as this statement sank in remembering the day, "Teddy!" Suddenly the day did not seem so bad. His fight with Ginny; the dark cloud presently hanging over their relationship; all of it was pushed from the forefront of his mind for the first time since ithad happened as thoughts of his godson temporarily lightened the load.

With signs that Harry was listening and indeed getting up, Kreacher disappeared with another loud pop and Harry stood up, rubbing his eyes. Finding his glasses, he shoved them clumsily onto his face. It was true. Now that he could see the time on the muggle alarm clock he knew that Andromeda Tonks would be here in little under an hour. The thought of seeing Teddy gave him a little bubble of happiness in his chest that didn't seem likely to burst at all soon.

Harry dressed unceremoniously, yanking on the first robes that he could find without really looking at them. He picked up his wand, slipping it into his pocket, and made his way down the first flight of stairs from the room that used to be Sirius's. Fortunately, in three years of occupying his late godfather's house Harry had managed to turn it into a warm and friendly home. He had at first balked at the idea of living in the old house that had held so many dark and painful memories for Sirius. It had held him like a prison in those final years. But when he had come here that first time after the defeat, he had realized that so many of his own memories of Sirius were tied up in the house. Whenever he left for long periods of time he found that he missed Sirius more, and the place where he could feel close to him. So he stayed, and tried to make it a place that Sirius would have liked. The furnishings were all red and gold now, in homage to Sirius's own decorating style from his teenage years.

By the time Harry reached the basement kitchen where the warm, wafting smells were almost overpowering, his thoughts had begun to stray back to Ginny. He supposed vaguely that this was because the smells of cooking bacon and sausages reminded him of the burrow. It was inevitable. Everything reminded him of Ginny, and Ginny reminded him of the terrible argument that they had had just over a week ago which had effectively caused them to cease talking ever since. He'd tried to go over to the Burrow and see her, but Ginny refused to see him, despite Molly practically dragging him in and insisting he stay for dinner. Truth be told, he was still a little flabbergasted by the whole thing. After some inconsequential thing he couldn't even remember, Ginny had suddenly blown up in a temper and accused him of not taking their relationship seriously, and caring about his job and his _'responsibilities'_ - she had said it like that; scornfully; more than her. Apparently they wanted different things, and she just hadn't realized until now. As far as he was concerned, this was all coming out of the blue, and he had stared at her uncomprehendingly until she had stormed out. Unsurprisingly, when he had staggered over to see Hermione and Ron afterwards with a pleaful, helpless kind of look on his face, Ron had been the sympathetic one, and Hermione had looked at him calculatingly, and demanded to know each and every detail of what had been said so she could analyse what he'd done wrong,

"Well, you have been _unbelievably _busy recently, what with all your Anti Dark Force League stuff, and _all _those letters from the damned Minister every week. It's as bad as if you were Dumbledore; no; _worse,_ in fact. I wish people would leave you alone, already; it's been three _years, _for crying out loud," Hermione ranted a bit, then remembered what they were talking about with one look at Harry's dejected face. "But Ginny understands all the media attention, she gets it bad enough herself," she backtracked quickly, "I'm sure it's just her temper Harry, and all the stress of it; she'll calm down," she finished, reassuringly. Ron just gave her a look as if he wasn't sure whether he wanted to defend his sister and her temper, and then turned back to Harry,

"Never mind, mate," then, with a shifty look at Hermione, he added, in a whisper, "_Girls. Hormones."_ with a shake of his head that said 'we'll never understand.'

That was last Sunday evening. He hadn't been coping well since; today's episode was the third time this week that Kreacher had resorted to popping into his bedroom to wake him up when Harry hadn't surfaced by midday. He'd been skipping out on his auror training, too; and to top it all off he had Hermione popping round at all hours of the day with annoying frequency to check that he was alright, asking pertinent questions about his 'feelings' and insisting that he eat something. If he wasn't careful she'd have Molly on him next, and that was something he was as keen to avoid as any of her sons, knowing full well how she would react if she knew he wasn't looking after himself properly.

In the long galley-like kitchen he found Kreacher laying his breakfast promptly at the head of the long wooden table dominating the room. With the transformation of the house, so Kreacher's new personality had continued to blossom.

"Hello, Kreacher," Harry intoned glumly.

"Morning, Master." Kreacher promptly replied. "Breakfast is served."

"Kreacher, do you think you could get the floo powder out and the fire started for after breakfast?" Harry asked casually between mouthfuls of sausage. "I need to make a floo call to Ron before Teddy gets here."

"Certainly sir, right away," Kreacher beamed, happy at being given another task. He liked being busy. Harry watched him as he sauntered off to the fireplace, then sighed mentally. He knew that he'd been exasperating Ron this week by asking him for news of Ginny, but when they'd seen each other yesterday Ron had expressly promised to check in at the burrow and see what he could find out, and then relay anything helpful to Harry.

He ate quickly so he could make the call to Ron & Hermione's. Appearing in the hearth of their living room he immediately spotted Hermione and groaned inwardly, thinking that she'd keep him for at least five minutes with more talk about his feelings. He'd been hoping to avoid her this once.

He cleared his throat. "Hermione?"

"Harry!," she exclaimed, noticing his head swimming in the flames, "How nice to see you!" Her face seemed to imply concern rather than pleasure, though; how annoying it was how soon she always clicked onto her concerned look. "How are you feeling? Fancy popping over properly and we can talk about um... things..." she trailed off lamely, looking nervous, not really sure if she should mention it, obviously.

"Um, I'm ok; is Ron here, Hermione? Only i was hoping he'd have some news for me and i really need to talk to him, if that's ok," he quickly avoided the subject of himself.

"Yes, you're lucky, he's not left for work yet, he had a late start this morning," Hermione had a look on her face that said that she knew exactly what news they needed to talk about, but he chose not to elaborate further anyway. "I'll just go and fetch him for you, shall i?"

"Thanks Hermione, you're the best." Harry waited while Hermione disappeared. A minute later she returned suddenly with her fiancéé Ron in tow.

"Harry! I wasn't expecting to see you this morning. You only just caught me, mate." Ron said lightly as he strode in and took up a seat opposite the hearth, pulling the chair round a bit. "What's up? Everything ok?"

"Oh, you know, alright," Harry tried to sound cheerful for his two best friends, but he knew immediately that he wasn't fooling anybody. He ploughed on. "I just wanted to ask you, well, have you had a chance to have that chat with Gin yet, 'cos, i erm, well, i was just wondering." he trailed off.

Ron and Hermione exchanged glances, much to the annoyance of their friend sitting in the fire who didn't fail to notice. He tried to keep his face from showing annoyance; he was eager for Ron's answer. Blowing up at them wouldn't help his cause.

"Look, mate," Ron began after a pause, "i did see her last night before i came home, and, well, she's still pretty upset, i'd say. Frankly we're all a bit surprised that she's stayed angry this long, she usually calms down a lot quicker, stubborn woman- but it's alright-" he hastened to add on the end, as Harry's face visibly fell, "i've got a plan." At this Hermione could distinctly be heard clearing her throat and Ron clarified, "well, ok, Hermione's idea, really, but anyway; we have a plan to help you out a bit; you know; get her to at least see you so you can try and talk it out with her."

"What is this plan, then?" Harry asked, looking dubious.

"Well, since both of you are involved with our wedding, what with you being my best man and Ginny being Hermione's maid of honour, we thought that wedding plans would be an ideal excuse to get you together in the same room, what do you think?" Ron looked pleased with himself as he explained this, and Harry raised an eyebrow.

"We'll invite Ginny over tomorrow night," Hermione continued, "but we won't tell her that you're coming, just that i need her help with plans and would she stay for dinner, and when she gets here she might be surprised to see you here too, but it won't matter because we'll have a perfectly viable excuse to need _both _of your presences for the whole evening." she finished. She was watching Harry's face closely, trying to gauge his reaction. He looked dubious, but when he spoke he seemed pleased by the idea,

"Thanks, guys, you have no idea; i really need to talk this out and apologise," he began. Ron quickly stifled any further praise with a hand gesture that suggested that Harry could forget about it, because Harry was his best mate. Despite the fact that they were talking about his sister, here, he accepted that they were made for each other.

"Well, i'd better be off if that's ok, Harry. George said he'd be ok in the shop this morning until midday but then he'd probably need my help," Ron stood up as he explained. "Either Hermione or myself will owl you with the arrangements for tomorrow evening as soon as we've contacted Ginny and made sure that it's on."

"Oh, it's alright, i've got to get out of the fire myself, Andromeda will be here any minute with Teddy," Harry grinned back good-naturedly with anticipation of the afternoon.

"Oh, you have Teddy today, of course!" Hermione exclaimed, beaming. "Give him our love, won't you? Enjoy your afternoon together," she said sincerely.

"Give him a big kiss from Auntie Hermione and Uncle Ron," Ron added, fondly, showing a rare affection, "now get your head out the fire so i can floo to the shop, will you?"

Harry smiled at their enthusiasm as he disappeared back through the emerald flames. He really was happy now that he could focus on having the entire afternoon with the three and a half year old Teddy, his beautiful godson.

* * *

All thoughts of his earlier unhappiness disappeared as Harry played with the toddler that afternoon; his heart had been significantly lightened by the prospect of clearing up the mess he was in with Ginny. True to her word, Andromeda had turned up just after midday with Teddy in tow, sporting his favourite shade of turquoise-blue hair and a big grin just for his godfather, and he was now happily zooming around the floor of the drawing room on the toy broomstick Harry had bought him for his previous birthday. Harry had been almost unable to wait to buy one for him. He was watching Teddy slightly nervously from the old threadbare armchair in the corner, smiling as the little boy's hair slowly began to turn a mousy brown colour; Harry had noticed that when his godson seemed to be particularly absorbed or concentrated on something, his hair would always revert to mousy brown, forcibly reminding Harry of his father, Remus. This wasn't without pain for Harry but he was glad that there would always be reminders of his father's best friends around; in Teddy, and in Grimmauld Place itself.

"Wheeee!" Teddy squealed as he zoomed past Harry again, bursting into delighted laughter, his light-blue ocean like eyes sparkling.

* * *

Ginny ran through the rain with her cloak held up over her head sheltering her, into the relief of the nearest shop doorway. It was a moment before she got her bearings and realised that it was Flourish and Blotts that she had taken shelter at. Well that was ok; she'd just browse the new books section for a while until the rain was less torrential. She pushed open the door, setting the bell ringing madly, and stepped inside. Quickly using a hot air charm on her clothes she was dry again, and moved over to the nearest stand of colourful tomes to browse. She started to skim the titles, mind only half on the books. _Cusper's Complete Compendium of Charms for Cooking, Runes & Dubloons: Discover your own Buried Treasure, Basic Dragon Breeding: A Guide... _she tutted audibly as she read that one; one to keep away from Charlie and Hagrid and their insane dragon obsessions...

"Oooh, that's more like it," she muttered to herself, reaching for a shiny new copy of _Essential Quidditch_, but before she had put her hand on it, a shuffling and stifled throat clearing caught her attention from the other side of the bookshelf. She had thought that she was alone; the bookstore seemed deserted apart from the bored-looking saleswitch on the other side of the store, staring glumly out the window from behind the sales desk. Whoever it was, they must have been deliberately standing very still, trying not to draw attention. This made her immediately suspicious.

She grabbed _Essential Quidditch _out from the shelf and caught a glimpse of platinum blonde hair streaking upward quickly, as if the someone on the other side had been watching her. Right. That was it. Furiously, she strode around the bookshelf to the other side to confront the mystery onlooker; and froze.

* * *

The first thing he noticed as the bell rang shrilly signalling a new arrival into the bookstore was her scent. He hadn't bothered to look up, too absorbed in the book he was skimming through, but as the scent wafted lazily towards him in the secluded space he had found between two book stacks, his attention was caught and he paused. Floral, but intense. Honey and Cinnamon too. He couldn't quite place where he might have smelt it before. He looked up, intrigued, and caught a rich mane of long, dark red hair swish past the end of the bookshelf, into the stack next to the one in which he was concealed. He could only catch snatches of her face through the books, but it was intense too, and beautiful; flushed slightly, maybe from a run through the rain into the bookstore, & now completely focused on the books in front of her as she searched, seemingly oblivious to his presence. So he stayed stock still, frozen in the same position as when he had looked up, just watching intently. A hazel brown eye, the curve of the edge of her mouth, red full lips. Who _was _this beautiful creature that had walked into the bookshop, disturbing everything? He didn't remember ever seeing anyone like her before. She muttered to herself; beautiful, soft tones. Her hand moved to pick up the book directly in front of him. Panicking, he snapped out of it suddenly, shutting the book and straightening up again, clearing his throat with embarrassment. Then all of a sudden she was right in front of him. Beautiful and dangerous, eyes sparkling like knives. And he_ knew _her.

* * *

Draco Malfoy had changed. To look at, he was very similar to what he had always been; tall, slender, a more muscular chest than she remembered, certainly; sharp angular jaw with fine, chiseled cheekbones, extremely pale with beautiful light grey eyes. But most striking in his appearance as ever was his beautiful white-blond hair, sweeping long over his eyes, so that he had to flick it aside occasionally. It was and had always been a dazzling colour. Yes; she had always found him handsome in the extreme, although in his case it was stupidly easy to ignore his looks based on his attitude. So, much the same as ever, in appearance. It was his manner that was so different, his _air. _He looked embarrassed. _Ashamed. _Ginny didn't think that she had ever seen the arrogant, self-absorbed Draco Malfoy have the decency to look ashamed before. For some reason this only served to make her even more incensed.

"Draco Malfoy." she hurled his name at him like an accusation. He didn't look away- in fact, he was staring at her a bit, like he'd never met her before. It was irritating. Ginny made sure she scowled right back at him.

"Ginevra Weasley." He greeted her in return, surprising her by politely using her full name. No one called her Ginevra. He seemed nervous, of all things. Ginny allowed herself to feel slightly smug; she had made her mood abundantly clear, then.

"What do you think you are doing? Were you _watching _me?" she hissed, threateningly.

"I, er, I, that is, sorry. I didn't mean to, i was just startled when you came in," he fumbled through the sentence, the most abashed Malfoy she had ever seen. He was acting most unlike himself. Fortunately she hadn't had cause to have seen him in over 2 years, though, so who knew what was normal for him these days.

"Didn't anyone ever teach you it was rude to stare?" she said, venomously.

Draco tried to look away, upset by her manner, but she was somehow mesmerizing, an angel of fury fiercely staring him down. Instead he did the thing that came naturally to him; he regained some of his legendary cool and replied,

"Of course, what was i thinking, staring at a Weasley? You don't warrant the time of day," he spat at her, smirking.

'No, wait, what _am_ i thinking_,' _his brain was screaming at him a moment later, ' the most beautiful woman in walks up to you and you _insult _her?' But then the unimaginable happened for Draco Malfoy; the worst thing that he could possibly have been confronted with. Her confident, cold air had seemed to falter and snap in a single moment. She burst into _tears._ What the hell was he supposed to do now?

"Aww, hell,_" _he muttered, incredulous. She had been looking daggers at him a second before, and now she had totally broken down. He was fairly sure he had said much worse to her back in the day, and she'd never lost her cool before, so what the hell was this about? He had already regretted saying the harsh hurtful words the moment that they had left his mouth. It was just a defence reaction, not that he had _actually _wanted to hurt her.

Ginny hazarded a look up at him through tears and quickly looked away again, ashamed of her reaction. Draco's hard demeanour had melted in the second it took to take in Ginny's sudden transformation to the weeping, shuddering form in front of him. He looked at her with a mortified, guilty expression on his face, uncertain and, what was that, worry? Ginny wished he would stop gaping at her and just walk away; she couldn't believe she had just broken down in front of him like this. Out of all the people she would have chosen to witness a meltdown of these proportions coming from _her, _the calm does-not-cry sister of six brothers; he was the Worst. Person. Ever.

Suddenly, his arms were around her, encircling her, and she didn't have a clue what had happened. As quickly as the tears had come, the sudden surprise shocked her enough that they stopped. "Wha..." she started to say, and realized that he was attempting some kind of awkward patting of her shoulder in a pacifying manner. He was _comforting _her? Draco Malfoy? What had happened to the world? She tried to wriggle away from him, amazed, to see his face, but his warm arms were firm, locked tightly in a vice grip so that she couldn't escape. She squirmed and cleared her throat, "Um, Draco..." she started tentatively.

Draco, uncertain of what to do with the crying witch, had started towards her awkwardly and uncertainly bundled her into his arms, but then he'd smelt her sweet smelling hair as it brushed his face, and became suddenly, confusingly aware of her slim, curving frame much too close, in the circle of his arms, and the tension in his frame had started to melt, melting into her, his focus slipped…

"Oh, sorry," he loosened his arms, setting her free, and she repositioned herself to gaze up at him, puzzled and curious, but no longer mad as hell at him or crying insanely. This was definitely better. But before he could register much else she was kissing him, and his brain ceased to function.

Ginny kissed him slowly but firmly at first, like she was unsure, but then sensing his responsiveness to her she drew closer, arched tightly in his arms, and kissed him more fiercely, till they were both lost in the tangle of each other. Draco had stopped thinking. He didn't know what he was doing, just that he was _liking _it. His lips were busy exploring her mouth passionately when suddenly she drew her mouth away in protest, gasping, and was gone, pushing herself away bodily, looking down and not at him, shaking her head slightly. He gaped at her, dazed, not being able to process what had just happened or why it had stopped.

"G…"

"I'm sorry; I shouldn't have done that… I can't do this. I'm a mess, I'm a complete _disaster zone, _ever since last week when it…" she broke off, clearly not wanting to tell him whatever had happened last week. She still wasn't looking at him. This was particularly irritating, when she had just _snogged _him.

"Deep breath, Draco," he muttered to himself, trying to steady his racing heartbeat. He closed his eyes in case it helped. She was right about one thing, anyway. She was an clearly an inexplicable emotional wreck right now.

Why had she just done that? She was trying to ruin her own life. Ginny's thoughts were a cringing whirl of regret and guilt for what she had just done. With Draco Malfoy, of all people. Ginny lifted her head and cautiously looked at him again. He had closed his eyes and seemed to be taking great pains to focus on expelling each breath. So she was watching as his face changed. Slowly, his brow furrowed into a frown, and then his face took on an expression of horror, as something obviously dawned on him. No doubt he was suddenly horrifically aware of the fact that he had just kissed the Weasley girl. She scowled. He had seemed to be enjoying it well enough the moment before. He had opened his eyes and was staring at her again now, with a sort of worried, devastated look plain across his features. "Don't worry," she said, "I can forget all about it if you can, no need to beat yourself up over what a disgusting thing you just had to do," she ground out. The two books that they had each been holding had long since fallen to the floor, where they lay forgotten.

Draco was shaken up by this comment. Was she that dense? Was it possible she could think that he hadn't just enjoyed that? He thought he'd been making his feelings clear. He was torn, because all he wanted to tell her was exactly that; that he _wanted _her now, amazingly, like he'd never wanted anyone before (and as he thought this he realized with a jolt that it was true,) but he couldn't do anything about it, because she was with Potter. Harry Potter. Everyone knew that. And it had just dawned on him, after the best kiss he had ever had, that he couldn't have her, the only girl he really wanted.

"It's not like that," what was he settled for, after grappling for a few more seconds. "I can't do this either, whatever…this is." He paused, watching her. "Go back to Potter, and I will forget it ever happened. " He ended, starting to turn away from her gaze.

"I kind of… broke up with him." She said in a flat voice, but it wasn't fooling him. This was the real reason she was an emotional wreck, the reason she had burst into tears with hardly a whisper of an insult being thrown at her. "Well, not really; I'm not sure… we had a huge fight… we're not talking." Why was she telling him this? Wasn't it bad enough that she had just snogged him?

Draco struggled with this revelation for a minute before replying. "I don't think that kissing you was disgusting," he began, clearly grinding out the words. He paused, clearly struggling with his thoughts. He carried on in a softer tone. "You don't know what it's like for me now, Ginny- since the Defeat, I mean- I've tried to change, to become a better person…" he sighed and closed his eyes again. "Going through that last year, having to be around _him, _do his bidding; I changed, I hated myself. Harry is one of the only people to have stuck up for me since, he vouched for me, when many would have locked me up and thrown away the key, along with my father…" he paused, to check she was listening. Her eyes were wide. "Even if there was a chance of this…going anywhere, I couldn't. I couldn't do that to Harry."

She stared at him. He was definitely not the same person. That glaring, insult-slinging shadow she had seen earlier was a façade, it wasn't the real him. At least, not anymore. He would put Harry's feelings before his own. This was the kind of behaviour she expected from the always-noble Harry, but not from his rival. She stopped thinking about Harry, quickly, before the tears came back. And then she started pitying Draco. "_You don't know what it's like for me now…" _she repeated._ "_ What is it like for you now?"

"It's… uh, well, it's different." He said evasively. Ugh. Why was he going to tell her this? Her eyes were intent and imploring, not satisfied with his refusal to explain. He sighed. "It's hard to clear your reputation when it's linked to the darkest wizard of all existence, but I'm getting by." He said quietly, like he didn't really want her to hear. Ginny suspected that he would like to gloss over his less than desirable background with her, like he was afraid of how he would look in her eyes. Like she didn't already know what he had been like.

She was silent. She didn't know what to say to him. He cleared his throat again, and made to pick up the books they had long ago abandoned on the floor. He put his own copy of _Vulchanov's Verses I _back on the shelf and then silently handed her _Essential Quidditch, _after briefly glancing at the title on the book.

"I should leave you, get back to the Leaky Cauldron, or something. That is, if you're not going to burst into tears again any time soon, at least," he said, running a hand through his sleek silvery-blond hair. "You will be alright?"

Ginny nodded in assent. She might have left it there, only curiosity got the better of her, and she blurted out to his turning form, "Back to the Leaky Cauldron? Why are you going back there?"

He hesitated. "I'm kind of living there, at the moment."

"At the Leaky Cauldron?" she asked. "Why? What happened to the Manor?"

"Nothing happened to it, it's just that i…" he sighed. "My father is in jail still, as I'm sure you know, but I still felt that I could no longer live under his roof, if you can understand. He was scared of the Dark Lord, just like all of us, but he's still not exactly a wonderful person. He _liked _hurting those people. I was brought face to face with it, and I couldn't do it. Any of it. But he's different. I can't be like that, I had to get out." Heaving, like it had been difficult to get that all off of his chest, he gave her the briefest of small smiles and then turned, stalking off to the door and away. The bell still jangled above the door, as Ginny Weasley watched Draco Malfoy stalk away down Diagon Alley through the rain, the end to their brief encounter.

* * *

Draco had reached the sanctuary of his own room in the Leaky Cauldron. He ignored the mirror as it began to protest at his appearance and crossed to the bed, sinking down into it and burying his head in his hands. That had been an experience. He couldn't get Ginny out of his head, enough to logically process everything that had happened between them. The feel of her in his hands, her scent, the taste of her mouth, her creamy brown eyes, penetrating right down into him, her breath on his neck, the way she had said 'Draco'… when she hadn't been mad at him, that was. This was all totally irrational. He'd get over her in no time; it was just a stupid kiss, after all, the heat of the moment. If she hadn't started crying… that was Potter's fault, not his. Potter. Also the reason that he couldn't let this go any further. Not that he thought Ginny was at all that way inclined. No, she was in love with Potter. He felt a twinge of pain at that thought, and crushed it, immediately. He wondered what Potter had done to upset her this much to the point that they weren't even talking…

"No, stop that, Draco, don't let your thoughts chase her. It doesn't matter why they're arguing." He berated himself quietly, head still in his hands. This was no good. What he needed was a walk, movement. Sitting still like this was only going to let his thoughts fester and linger on it. So he got back up and wasted no time in swiftly exiting the pub back into the Alley behind, where he strolled back down the shop-lined street, not really looking at much but just wandering aimlessly. It had stopped raining, so he didn't feel the need to go back in any of the shops. Once he had passed Fortescues, he thought he might go back; the light was fading already with all the cloudcover, and he had cleared his head.

Bounding through the bar he gave Tom the bartender a nod and jumped the stairs two at a time, feeling more himself. He got to the door and unlocked it with a tap of his wand, breezing in once more. This time however he noticed a rich-chestnut brown tawny owl perched on the end of the bed, regarding him balefully. It wasn't one he recognized, so he immediately went over and untied the letter bound to its foot to see who it was from. The owl didn't go anywhere, so he presumed it might be waiting for a response. He read the letter;

_Dear Draco,_

_I'm sorry about earlier. I wanted a chance to apologize for just flinging myself at you like that; it's all my fault, I'm the one that's a complete mess and I'm sorry it had to affect you. I don't bear you any ill will, and to prove this point I wanted to invite you to accompany me to dinner at Ron & Hermione's this evening, so we could clear the air. We won't be alone, so nothing else can happen; but maybe we can be friends, if nothing else? I know that you are having a rough time of it lately. I have an ulterior motive for this; I don't think I can face them alone & I thought you might be the only person who would understand and might be able to save me from that prospect. Somehow I think you do understand. So you would be doing me a massive favour, and they wouldn't dare interrogate me with you there. Don't feel obliged to accept this invitation, but if you feel you can then please send a reply with Aquila & I will meet you at seven in the bar of the Leaky Cauldron. _

_Ginevra. _

"Ginevra…" he read her name aloud, lingering on the way that she had written it. He stared at the owl, what had she called it- Aquila- as if she could give him the answers. He pictured her face again, as she had come leaning towards him, about to kiss him. He ran his hand through his hair again and let out a big breath. Slowly, he reached for the pen on the desk.

* * *

More soon- please review! Thanks a lot :)


	2. Ginevra

_AN - Please take the time to hit the review button when you're done, any feedback would be tremendously appreciated, as this is my very first fanfic, and the first time I've shared any of my writing, really; so encouragement/ constructive criticism would help a lot. _

**Chapter Two – ****Ginevra**

Ginny walked into the rowdy bar of the Leaky Cauldron just before seven o' clock in the evening, squeezing herself between a drunken hag and a particularly odorous smelling old wizard who were almost blocking the Diagon-Alley entrance, having some kind of loud, finger-pointing argument about Fizzing Whizbees. Looking around, she spotted a platinum-blonde wizard sat alone at a table close to the stairs; he had his feet up on the back of a chair in front of him, crossed, and was leaning back casually in his own chair with a red book up in front of his face, apparently engrossed. She paused for a second before walking over to him to take in the casual elegance of his form, a pose that many others would look awkward or uncomfortable in. It just made him look graceful, lazily sprawled out like this. He seemed to shine in the dark, dimly lit inn; his pale skin and silvery hair almost luminously bright in contrast to everything else.

Stopping in front of him she cleared her throat and addressed him. "Draco." It was then that she noticed the gold-embossed title on the cover of the red book; it was _Essential Quidditch_ again. Had he gone back and bought it after he'd left her in the bookstore?

Draco's pulse had quickened as he heard the soft, pleasant resonance of her voice say his name. He hadn't noticed her approach. But this time he was prepared for her.

When he looked up, this much was clear to Ginny as well. He was immediately different to the defenseless man she had met that morning. His features were schooled in a confident, cool look as he replied to her greeting, springing his legs to the floor and propelling upward to meet her, depositing of the book on the table immediately. He took her hand. "Ginevra. How nice to see you again so soon. And there I had been thinking that we had agreed to forget all about the bookstore..."

She arched one eyebrow. Again with the Ginevra. "I didn't _agree_ to anything, but you obviously haven't, anyway, so I'd say that point is irrelevant," she said, indicating the book now lying on the table with a meaningful sideways glance at it.

"Ah, yes... you're in here, you know," he said, picking the book up once more and flicking through the pages, obviously trying to find one in particular. "Yes, here, look; _'A promising new talent in the Harpies squad, Ginny Weasley, 2__nd__ Chaser, has already proved her potential with a sparkling record last season, and is definitely one to watch.' _He finished reading the excerpt and raised his own eyebrows, a smile creeping around his mouth.

"Yes, well, enough about that," Ginny said, a bit flustered, and closed the book firmly, pushing it away from him and placing herself in between in the same movement so that he couldn't reach it again. She hoped that he didn't notice the flush in her cheeks. She perched on the edge of the table, close to him. A little too close, probably; he made her a little nervous, especially after earlier.

"I remember your flying from school," he went on, obviously intent on the subject. "You always were a bit of a pain in my backside, slightly too quick to be dismissed from our strategies," he mused.

"Gee, thanks for that," she said, a bit scathingly, and then bit her tongue. "Sorry. Old habits die hard, I guess." He was looking at her, unreadable.

"It's ok, I know everything I ever said to you before was an insult. If I could take it all back, I would." The truly abject look on his face all of a sudden made Ginny want to blink her eyes. It was wonder to observe this new side to Draco that she had never guessed was there before. She suspected he would keep on surprising her for a good while yet.

"So….Dinner with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, of all people…" he thrummed his fingers on the table top next to her leg.

"…and me," she ventured.

He sharpened his gaze on her, trying to gauge exactly what she was implying by this.

"You do know you must have a death wish, inviting me to _their_ house, of all people, right?" he said, half-sarcastically. She had to see what a truly bad idea this was, but he couldn't turn her down.

"I'm sorry" she said suddenly. "I shouldn't have asked you to come. It's not fair on you, to ask you to hold my hand for me so I don't have to face the inquisition alone. I just… Hermione owled me and she needs help with wedding stuff, and I didn't feel I could say no but I'm not ready to _face _them, they'll be on Harry's side and…" she garbled all this off, throwing her hands around in the air as she tried to explain to him in a flustered manner. Draco let her for a minute, smiling at her worry, and then caught her hands, stilling them in his.

"Stop apologizing, Ginny, "he intonated, calm and slow. "I want to be there for you. We can be friends. I can _do that,"_ he shrugged it off. Truth was, he wasn't sure that he could stay away from her. It was as simple as that. He knew it wasn't healthy for him to be here, _with her. _"I'll hold your hand if you need me to." They both looked down at their hands, where Draco was still holding onto hers. _I'm not strictly sure that this is how to be friends with her, Draco, _his inner voice interjected.

Ginny jumped up, lurching her hands out of his, and said, a little louder than necessary, "Shall we be off then? Ron & Hermione are probably expecting me," so that the people nearest them turned to look. She ignored them, looking expectantly at him. He only nodded in assent, and gestured for her to lead the way. She spun on the point and pranced out ahead of him.

* * *

Harry was fidgeting mercilessly in the soft armchair in Ron & Hermione's open-plan living area. He wasn't sure what he was expecting Ginny to say when she arrived and realized what tonight was really about. It was hard having not spoken to her in a week; he didn't know what she'd been up to or how she was disposed towards their relationship at present; it made for a pretty nerve-wracking time. Ron said that he was pretty sure she'd been trying to avoid him, too; which made it hard to get any intel. Ron & Hermione at present were throwing him anxious glances, and trying not to make it _look _like they were throwing him anxious glances.

"Firewhisky, Harry? Calm your nerves, couldn't hurt," Ron suggested, holding up a crystal decanter full of the reddish liquid. Harry shook his head, feeling faintly sick. Ron shrugged and poured one for himself anyway.

"Look, chances are, Harry, she'll want to resolve this just as much as you once it comes down to it," Hermione launched into her thoughts. "Maybe I should have a chat with her in the kitchen, though, first, check th-"

"No, Hermione," Harry intervened, determined. "I need to do this, & I need to do it alone," he said solemnly. This was between him and Gin, no-one else. He appreciated their efforts in getting him this far, but he had to walk this last bit into her good books on his own.

A noise came from all around, a kind of bell-ringing sound that was gone before it had really begun; Harry started at the noise, even though he knew what it was.

"She's here; someone just apparated within range of the house," Hermione confirmed, getting up at the noise. Ginny seemed to take forever to get to the door, however; Harry was waiting with baited breath for the knock that signaled her arrival. When it came, it was surprisingly forceful, a smart rap that reverberated soundly through the wood, making all them all jump out of their suspenseful stances. Ron moved to get the door; Hermione had disappeared into the kitchen; and suddenly Ginny was standing framed in the threshold of the door, red hair tumbling around her shoulders to almost her waistline; a fiery vision of beauty. Harry's breath caught. Then she moved, and they noticed someone behind her. A tall, white-blond someone was following in her wake, stooping under the lintel, the light falling on his features and identifying him a second later. Harry and Ron's eyes narrowed.

"What, the _hell,_ are you doing here?" Ron hissed.

* * *

Ginny and Draco apparated into a dark, moonlit street. To Draco it looked completely unremarkable, just another winding country lane. He didn't have a clue where they were. Ginny saw his confused glance around him and smiled, taking his hand to drag him along, grinning back at him as she danced forward, until a small solitary house loomed into sight. It was slightly too large to be called a cottage, per-se, but it looked old and cottagey with its worn stone and small, square windows. Draco smirked, inwardly; about what he would have expected from Weasel-King, really. Definitely no match for Malfoy Mansion. Ginny looked back at him;

"Rosehip Cottage," she announced fondly, stopping before it.

"Hmm," was about all that Draco felt qualified to say. He could tell she was looking for more. "Very, uh, _quaint._"

She made a move forward, towards the house, but Draco grabbed her arm, holding her back. She stared at him, questioningly. There was something he had to know, first, before he faced this. Something he had to check, at least.

"You love him, right?" he asked bluntly, no emotion creeping into his voice at all. It was flawless, his composed face, his flat syllables. But Ginny knew somehow how much he was holding back from her.

"Yes." She tried to imitate him, to be flawless, but she heard the tremor of her voice as she said the simple word, and cursed herself silently.

Draco heard the emotion behind the simple word, confirming and enforcing itself in a bitter agony upon his heart. No chance then. But that just made it easier to follow through with his resolve. "So what did he do to hurt you, Gin?" he asked, pained. He had to know what had caused this, if he was going to sit through whatever this debacle with his two old rivals was going to be; if he was going to protect her from their questioning. Merlin only knew what Ron & Hermione would think to him showing up there. He wasn't sure this was really going to turn into dinner or not; he couldn't see him making it that far being all pally with Ron, somehow.

The sudden familiarity between them with his use of 'Gin' wasn't lost on her, and she suddenly realized how much she trusted him already. Draco Malfoy, who, when she had woken up this morning, she had thought of as nothing more than an arrogant, self-obsessed jerk. Something had changed between them in that bookstore, something had changed that was immeasurable to her right now, and something with far reaching consequences that, so far, she could not see, apart from the fact that she wanted to know him, to be friends with him. He wasn't who she thought he had been.

She put these forebodings out of her mind for the moment. "It's not as simple as that, Draco," Ginny sighed, in answer to his question. "He didn't _do _anything specific, and he didn't mean to hurt me by any of his actions."

He looked confused by this. Why then had they had a fight; he hadn't cheated, or anything, - She sighed again. "Haven't you ever been in a long term relationship with someone where things just start to- get in the way?" Ginny said, exasperated. "Just one remark too many; another warlocks confederation that means that he'll be out of the country for a week and a half on that, or the ministry letter he was paying attention to instead of me, so that even when he is around he's not really there with me; I just snapped; I can't take it anymore. I… feel so distant." She let it all out on him, as if something she had been keeping tightly wound had now come free within her. "I feel like we're losing all our understanding with each other, like we've changed and we're no longer on the same paths. He's going somewhere, and I'm going somewhere, and… they're not the same," she finished.

Whoa. Deep. Draco wasn't sure he could handle all these complexities. How could she feel so many confusing things about something that should be simple; did she love him, or not? Something occurred to him. "I guess that I haven't… ever really had a long term relationship, before…" he confessed, frowning himself. He was slightly embarrassed by this, something that had never bothered him before; he was quite happy for the string of women to come and go; or he had been, until all too recently. Why in Merlin's beard was he suddenly fixated on this one woman; a woman, who, he might add, he did not understand at all; bursting into tears, spontaneously snogging him stupid and then, just as perplexingly _ceasing to snog him_. Maybe he was enchanted. He didn't care if he was, he decided. Life had taken an, _interesting_ turn.

"Never?" she snorted. "I guess your string of floozies have kept you kind of busy," she said sarcastically, regaining some of her earlier composure to jest with him.

Draco didn't deign to answer this dig at him. He was busy thinking another response to what she had said about her relationship with Harry. He was suddenly full of anger towards the boy who lived, for treating Ginny in that way. If he was the one that got to be with her, _he _wouldn't treat her like that; paying more attention to business than her, making her lost to the point that she had more or less given up on their relationship. Harry would be in better shape if he stayed well out of Draco's path for a while, or he might have to bring it up in a not-so-friendly way.

"How could he ever take a woman of such high calibre, such breathtaking beauty as _you _for granted?" he muttered to himself, enraged. Ginny, confused by the skip in his thoughts, was also suddenly feeling rater heated. So he thought that much of her?

Draco suddenly realized, from the look on Ginny's face, that he hadn't given full acknowledgement to what he had been saying. He probably wouldn't have just come out with it exactly like that, if he had had the chance to pay her the compliment again. But the look of pleased embarrassment on her face was quite a picture nonetheless. Her cheeks had flushed with colour very prettily. He had to fight back a growl of desire forming at the back of his throat.

"Am I really that much to you, Draco?" she said it in a light, teasing voice, trying to lighten the mood a bit; it was alarming too as much as anything that he could display such strong emotions towards her. Why had she invited him? She should have left this where it had begun in the bookstore and never thought of it again.

Draco seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "And why am _I _here? What am_ I_ to _you_ at this moment in time, exactly?"

"I guess you're here because…" Ginny stopped, thwarted. This was going to be tough to explain, as it was tough enough to understand even to her, in her own mind. "Well first of all, when I walked into the bookshop, I hated you. When I found you spying on me, I was mad at you and I hated you. Then you insulted me, and when I broke down into tears, you acted in a way that I would never, never have expected from you. All of a sudden, it was like the light had shifted and I could see the other person in you, the nice one… and I felt sorry for you, and if only I hadn't had the impulse to kiss you and ruin everything before that…"

"Wait," Draco stopped her, "you felt _sorry_ for me? I don't need your pity, Weasley." Not only did she pity him, she regretted the kiss. He supposed he already knew she must regret it, because she had pulled away and started going on about _Harry, _but it still hurt to hear it put like _that_. It had been a damn good kiss, even if he did say so himself. "Look, shall we just get this thing over with," he cut her off as she was about to remonstrate, probably about his use of 'Weasley.' He stalked over to the door, letting her follow, and stood to the side, waiting impatiently.

Ginny compliantly followed to the door and stood in front of it, next to him. Something about the look on his face when he had reacted to the word 'Pity' made her not want to argue the point back with him once he had cut her off. But she hesitated before knocking, causing Draco to lift his eyebrows at her, stood with her knuckle clenched in the air, ready to knock.

"What's the matter, Gin?" he queried, catching the slight look of fear that tinged her irises. "Look, I'm still here to hold your hand," he murmured, taking her un-raised hand in his and smirking, teasingly. She smiled back at him and, taking this as his answer, he rapped smartly on the door for her. The door opened, and she left go of his hand to walk over the threshold.

* * *

_End of part 2. If you could you hit the review button and tell me what you think then I'd be exceedingly grateful, and on top of __that, encouraged to write more. Thank you!_


	3. Realisation

_A/N - Thank you so much to hwkitty, Phoenix9292 and Ashybee that have taken the time to review my efforts, it's nice to know what you think. I am so sorry it has taken me so long to get this chapter up, January is proving quite demanding of my time with many decisions to make regarding my future cropping up and requiring time and effort to resolve. Plus, being back at work has made my free time scarce. Regardless, I'm going to make more of an effort to keep up a pace with this story, so please review and it'll give me the encouragement to carry on writing whenever I can. This chapter was meant to be longer but I've been having issues with the next part despite knowing what I want to write, so I decided to just post up what I have as a shorter chapter in the mean time and continue struggling with the next bit. Hopefully I can finish it up soon._

**Chapter 3 – Realisation**

Ginny walked two steps into the room and stopped dead, seeing someone unexpected in front of her. "Harry!" Ginny breathed, facing straight at him. Her glazed eyes registered nothing but shock. He had gazed at her for one indefinable amount of time, however, before both his and Ron's attention was caught by the movement of the man entering behind her, and their eyes had narrowed in dislike and an immediate guard, no longer at ease in the homely setting.

"What, the _hell, _are you doing here?" Ron had hissed at him, a special kind of dislike reserved for only the worst of childhood enemies evident in his tone still, even after all the time that had passed since Hogwarts, and the old rivalries. Despite the fact that after the battle, Harry had made a very sincere attempt to let Draco and the whole of the rest of the wizarding world know that he held nothing against him and understood the position he had been put in under Voldemort's regime, nothing could ever really erase the animosities between Draco Malfoy and the trio of friends. They had steered well clear of each other during the time that had passed since, neither party being openly hateful towards the other and instead choosing to silently acknowledge and no more. But for Draco Malfoy to turn up within the sanctuary of his own home was too much for Ron Weasley, who was the least inclined of the three friends to forgive and forget. His ears burned scarlet as he glowered at the tall blonde, his hand twitching instinctively for the wand in his pocket. Harry turned instead in confusion to Ginny,

"Gin…. What are you doing with Draco Malfoy behind you…?" he started uncertainly, aware that this was the first time they had spoken in over a week, and that she was looking at him with a frozen, blank look in her eyes, completely caught out. Not much of the reunion he had been envisaging.

Within the whirling sphere of her mind Ginny's thoughts were screaming at her, the shock of seeing Harry and the sudden difficulty of the situation making it hard for her to register the appropriate reaction to it all… "What… Harry…"

"Well if everyone has got past the stage of answering insufferably dull questions I can answer for the fact of _my_ presence," Draco drawled from behind Ginny, making her and Harry jump slightly out of their staring at each other as he stepped further into the light, to her side. He thought that Harry looked like he wanted to punch him suddenly as he moved closer to Ginny, and smirked inwardly. Harry's presence had shocked him, too, but he had recovered quickly enough to remember the uncharitable thoughts that he had been having outside and to take full advantage of the sudden situation; "I'm Ginevra's date," he announced, rather triumphantly. Yep, Potter definitely wanted to punch him now.

This was the moment Hermione conveniently chose to reappear in the doorway to the kitchen, giving a soft 'Oh!' of surprise and stopping in mid-step, eyes wide.

"Da..date...wha…Gin…" Ron was spluttering, completely scarlet-faced, while Hermione was looking slightly bewildered and dismayed.

"He's my friend, and I asked him to accompany me to dinner," Ginny stated clearly suddenly, recovering. She was looking at Harry, unsure how she wanted him to react, and unsure what she was feeling herself, about, well, everything. Everything was suddenly so much more confusing than it had been yesterday.

"Since when are you friends with Malfoy?" Harry asked uncertainly. "I wasn't even aware you two knew each other properly,"

"Why are you here though, Potter?" Draco continued as if Ginny hadn't just countered his wishful statement, "I don't believe that Ginny was aware of you being on the guest list to this lovely little reunion," he drawled.

"Why is _he here? _Why are you, more like, you insufferable git, we didn't invite you!" Ron started forward, "You're the one who's not on the guest list,"

Draco snorted, and sighed to himself, "Haven't we just gone over that, Weasel? I'm here because your sister _invited _me," he spoke slowly, as if to a child. Yes, this wasn't going to go well. He'd already half forgotten about his desire _not _to get in the way of Harry and Ginny's relationship over the much more desirable idea of teaching the prick how to treat a girl properly, and getting the highly delicious prize of Ginny for himself; screw morals. But as lovely as this idea sounded, the other half of his brain was still intent on the remembrance that he owed Harry Potter. For the faith he had had in him to vouch for him and his mother to the ministry. For saving his life when he was seventeen.

"and he's here because he's her boyfriend, so butt out, ferret!" Ron was now so scarlet he looked like he might explode at any minute. Hermione rushed over to him, holding him back as he made attempts towards Malfoy.

"Ron!" she barked at him admonishingly, "Draco…" she looked over at him nervously, and Draco looked at her in surprise at the actually civil tone she was addressing him with, "well, er, _welcome _to our home, but why don't you come into the kitchen with me, give Harry and Ginny the chance to work a few things out first," she asked him, anxiously indicating the room behind her with a flick of her head, and giving Ron a gentle shove in the opposite direction towards Harry, releasing him, and adding sharply, "Stay here, Ron, and calm down," before beckoning nervously to the Slytherin to go ahead of her before she relinquished the position between him and her fiancée, knowing that Ron needed a time out.

Draco was somewhat surprised that Hermione would think he would agree to this tactic, but glancing again at Ginny he knew that he would; she was staring distractedly at Harry, no longer really aware of his presence like she had been before the door had opened. It was clear that she needed to talk to Harry alone before he could claim any of her attention again. He strolled over to Hermione and past her where she had indicated the kitchen to lie.

"Hermione, you're not going in there alone with him!" Ron started angrily.

"Oh for goodness sakes, Ron, if Ginny trusts him then so do I," Hermione argued back, and swiftly turned and followed him, shooting warning glances at Ron who was still clearly seething, and confused looks towards Ginny and Harry.

The kitchen was small and cosy-looking; Draco didn't think much of it as he walked in but he supposed that other people might think it a warm and friendly feel in the warm tones it was decorated in and the big round wooden table dominating the space. He turned to watch the brown-haired witch that he had never liked follow him in and regard him with apprehension clearly written across her intelligent features. She didn't seem to know what to do with the situation next.

"So this _dinner thing_ was just a ploy to get them together to talk, huh," he ventured. Trying to show that he wasn't there to be difficult and could actually manage the kind of civil small-talk that their respective parties had never before breached in conversation together might be a good place to start.

Hermione nodded in the affirmative, and he nodded back. Should have seen that one coming really, if he'd stopped to think about it.

"Ginny really invited you dinner?" she shot back, looking both interested and surprised by their apparent friendship. "I didn't even know that she and you really knew each other,"

"We didn't, until recently," Draco decided to answer vaguely, not giving anything away. "But she has had a lot more time for me than most people show towards a former death eater," he shrugged.

This statement surprised Hermione. She knew all about the hearings and trials he had been through after the defeat and she knew that Harry's evidence had been instrumental in clearing Draco; but she had no idea how he had been or what he had been up to since then. Maybe he really had had a tough time since then and Ginny had been more than the usual kind to him, prompting this unlikely friendship to occur. He didn't seem so bad, so far, Hermione was deciding. She had certainly felt sorry for all that he had been through in the war; he must have been terrified, literally forced to do the terrible things that he had done…

"Look, Draco, I don't know how well you or Ginny know each other or to what capacity you are friends but her and Harry are made for each other, and this thing that's gone on between them; we just need to let them sort it out ok? So if you could just let them do that, for Ginny's sake if not for Harry's-"

Draco stiffened at her description of 'made for each other'. If they were so made for each other then why were they having such big problems being together? "Don't worry Hermione, I'm not here to cause trouble," he said sharply. "Whatever Ginny wants…"

Hermione seemed a bit better disposed towards him now; probably getting over the shock of having to entertain ex-enemy Draco Malfoy in her own home. Hell, he hadn't ever imagined it either. She indicated the chairs and table; "Would you like to sit down, I can get you a drink if you'd like anything,"

Draco accepted a seat by silently moving to take one. Hermione leaned against the counter. "So how long do you think they…" he started to ask. He felt queasy at the thought that Ginny might be in the other room as he spoke, reconciling with Harry, and that would be the end of that. If only she didn't want him, and there was nothing he could do for Harry by staying away from her, then he could see hope at the end of the tunnel for him in all this; but if she decided to take Harry back then he had to stay away from her.

Hermione just shook her head, unable to tell him. "I expect Ron is getting in the way if he hasn't had the decency to leave them to it, but he would be worse in here; I'm sorry if you've changed, Draco, but I don't think Ron will ever be able to see it enough to be civil,"

"Yeah, I know; I'm sorry for how I acted in school, Hermione, but I'm not kidding myself that we can ever be friends now; I just want to be here for Ginny's sake, ok? She was in pretty bad shape when I bumped into her this morning, she's… she just needed someone," he finished, slightly bitterly. He was the person that had been there, that was all.

She had never thought that she would hear that from Malfoy's lips, an apology. A little stunned, Hermione was beginning to see what maybe Ginny had seen when she had become friends with this unlikely source. He was even a little attractive when he was nice. She shook her head, shaking that thought right away.

* * *

Ginny distractedly watched the back of the graceful blonde wizard retreating into the kitchen and felt vaguely guilty at him having to be here in all of this, and not being able to pay proper attention to the man she had invited, but Harry was standing in front of her, looking hurt and confused, and she was completely side-tracked.

"So since when are you friends with Malfoy, then?" Harry repeated, as soon as he was out of sight.

"It sort of just happened," Ginny started. "He's changed, I think; you were right to vouch for him Harry, he truly regrets everything he used to be," she jumped to his defence without really considering it. She knew that Draco wasn't a bad person, after just the small amount of time she had spent with him today.

Hermione and Draco might have left them to talk it out, but Ron was still in the room with them. "Ginny, he was a filthy _death eater, _he tried to kill Dumbledore, and he almost killed _me, _he's never been any good, and we all know it-"

"Ron, none of that's important right now," Harry spoke quietly, "Can you just leave me and Ginny to talk, for a minute? Just, need a minute,"

"Oh…right…I'll just take myself into the study or something…" Ron looked annoyed but acquiesced, storming off towards the hallway muttering something about 'his own house'.

"Look, Gin, I don't care about Malfoy right now; can we talk about us?" he asked.

"Harry," she began, breaking off in difficulty. "I don't know if there is an 'us' anymore,"

"Why, Ginny, what did I do? Please, don't give up on us yet, this is _silly,"_

"_No, _Harry, that's exactly what it isn't, it's not _silly; _I really just don't feel like we work together anymore," she interjected, getting angry again at this comment; this was exactly the problem; he was killing their relationship and he didn't even understand the problem.

"Tell me what I can do to fix us, Gin," he pleaded. "I love you."

"I…I don't think I love you anymore- at least, not like that," she hesitantly whispered. She hadn't been sure before, but, being confronted with him again like this; she suddenly knew that it was the truth, and probably had been for a long time. How long had they been fooling themselves, foolishly trying to hold onto something that had been lost- possibly years ago? She realised now that she had been going through the motions. "I love you… but as a friend, I think," she finished a bit desperately.

Harry was staring at her like his worst fears had come true, and it was almost enough to break her heart. It had been great, some of the best moments of her life were with Harry; and she didn't want to cause him pain now. But that was what she was doing, and she didn't know how to dull it. He would always be one of the people dearest to her heart, despite their broken relationship.

"What…what's changed? We can still be like we were before," Harry was trying desperately to reject her words; he didn't want to hear them. How could so much have changed so quickly between them? "Hang on a second," he looked up at her again, "this isn't anything to do with Malfoy, is it?" something in the way of accusation had entered his tone, but Ginny was perplexed by his sudden jump back to Malfoy and hadn't followed his association,

"What do you mean, what's Malfoy got to do with it-"

"Well, he turns up here with you, claiming to be your date, and suddenly you don't love me anymore-"

Furious as she grasped his meaning, she spluttered back at him, rage fully beginning to bubble under her exterior, "WHA- HOW- HOW CAN YOU EVEN BEGIN TO ASK ME THAT, HARRY, HOW COULD YOU EVEN THINK THAT I WOULD DO THAT TO YOU?" Words couldn't come to her to describe her flabbergasted rage that he could think that she might have been cheating on him.

"Well then what's he doing here with you for dinner, how come I've never heard about your friendship before? You break up with me and then barely a _week later you're-_" Harry yelled back, but not nearly as loudly as Ginny had shrieked, uncertain now in the face of her righteous temper.

"I- HOW COULD YOU! I only met him again _today, _for merlinssake," she ranted.

Draco came barging back into the room at the sound of all the yelling coming from them, with a harassed looking Hermione following in his wake. He looked between them wildly, noting Ginny's crazed expression and Harry's stony anger.

"What have you been saying to her, Potter?" he interrupted angrily, pushing himself towards the shorter black-haired wizard in anger. "Because she looks about ready to hex you into next Friday, and I swear I'll be only too happy to help," he began his threats, sneeringly.

"Haven't you done enough, Malfoy?" Harry spat back, angrily.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Draco shot back again. Their blond and black heads were now very close, both angrily squaring up to the other. Ginny noticed worriedly that they both had their wands out and were clenching them tightly at their sides, ready to strike.

"Harry thinks that just because you're here I must have been _cheating on him,"_ Ginny barely managed to grind out, shaking with the ferocity of her own disbelief and anger.

Oh, great. So despite his intentions to stay out of it he was going to get cast as the villain anyway. "I wish, Potter," he smirked, evilly, ignoring his frustration in the face of Harry's anger.

"Harry, I am only going to say this once." Ginny rounded on him again, her voice suddenly clear and ringing. "I did not cheat on you, I am not seeing Draco Malfoy, but we are through, and I'm sorry about that, I really am, but there's nothing left we can do about that. Goodbye, Harry."

She cleared her throat and gave Draco a meaningful look, indicating the door before starting to walk towards it. Draco hesitated for a second, still angry as he was at Harry, but then thought better of it and followed her billowing wake.

Then they were gone.

Harry collapsed in the armchair behind him, head in his hands.

* * *

_Thanks for reading - please review if you have the time!_


	4. Callidora's

_A/N - Thank you to everyone who has reviewed or subscribed, etc! You guys are the best! To answer one of the reviews, I know, Harry isn't having a great time of it at the moment, but please try not to feel too sorry for him, as I do have plans for him coming soon which should make everything look a bit better! Anyway, I enjoyed writing this chapter, so I hope you like it too._

**Chapter 4 – Callidora's**

Draco had followed Ginny in silence as she stormed out of the house and instead of apparating away, just walked and walked down the moonlit country road, not looking back at him. His mind was reeling at her last words to Harry before she had left the house. _I did not cheat on you, I am not seeing Draco Malfoy, and we are through. _So it really was over between the 'golden couple' of the all the newspapers and magazines that had them cast as a done deal, the celebrity couple of the wizarding world. He was quietly triumphant that Ginny was no longer seeing anybody, though he didn't know how she felt about _him. _The way was clear, now, right? He wanted to pursue her, and now there was definitely no chance of getting in Harry's way. It was more than he had dared to hope for.

He wasn't sure exactly what to do now though with the little red-headed witch still determinedly pacing away along the road in the dark, and at quite a pace too. How long had they been walking down this road now in silence? Why they were even bothering to walk; it was irritating. How to broach the silence? He stopped walking and simply watched her, waiting to see if she would notice that he'd stopped following her or if she'd even care.

She stopped herself abruptly about twenty meters farther down the road, shoulders sagging. The moonlight still glinted off her hair enough that he could make her out. Slowly, she revolved around to face him, head hanging.

"Ginny?" he called.

"Sorry. I'm angry. I needed to walk out the frustration." She sighed and started shuffling back towards him, closing the distance back up.

"It's alright, no need to apologize," he muttered. Now that she had stopped her frenzied walking it looked to him like her skin was pricking with the cold, bare arms showing off her skin in a pale snowy beauty in the silver light, matched closer to his own than it would ever usually appear.

"Here, take my cloak, you'll be freezing soon," he said gruffly, shrugging it off from around his shoulders and throwing it around her. It looked much too large on her, immediately dwarfing her slim figure in its folds. She smiled up at him gratefully, still looking apologetic.

"Thanks, I must have left mine at Ron's," she said, shrugging it up higher and shivering involuntarily from the chill still in her bones. "Ugh, so much for dinner," she groaned then, remembering what they had actually gone to Ron's for in the first place. "I've ruined your evening, and you must just _hate _me for dragging you into all this!" her voice rose in anguished tones again, and Draco jumped in hastily, lest her temper started to peak again.

"Ginny; _Gin," _he said soothingly, grabbing her by the shoulders and peering down at her, trying to capture her eyes with his until she looked at him reluctantly_, _listening. "It doesn't matter, ok?" he continued in his soft, soothing tones, silver-grey orbs bearing into her, and Ginny found herself wondering at how mesmerizing his melodic soft tone was. "Though I am kind of hungry," he added as an afterthought, frowning. Ginny giggled at his expression and abrupt change from mesmerising to thinking about his stomach.

Draco, caught by surprise at her suddenly lightened mood, grinned back at her, a little warmth striking into him at the sound of her laugh. For the moment she seemed to have forgotten her anger over Harry, which he was keen to retain. "Tell you what," he said, "we both need to eat, I'm not letting you starve and I reckon you could do with the company for a little while longer yet, so how about you let me take you to dinner?" he suggested in as light a tone as he could manage. He badly did not want to give up her company just yet.

Ginny tightened and tried not to let the smile slip off her face as she considered, hesitating. Surely it was harmless; they were trying to be friends, weren't they? Friends have dinner together. Not to mention the fact that this was all her fault anyway, the reason he had missed the promised dinner. She owed him this much. She let just another fraction of a second hang between them before she finally answered, "Dinner. Sounds great. Where do you suggest?" she cocked her head inquisitively up at him.

Draco gazed at her face for a long moment, enjoying the way her rich red hair began to fall across her face in strands, highlighted by the moonlight in glossy fragments, and the fact that he had her full attention. Her eyes, wide and inquiring, were drowning him in their gaze. At last he answered, lips quirking upward in a characteristic smirk, "Oh I know a nice place. How about I Apparate us?"

Ginny scowled. "Why can't you just tell me?"

"Now where would the fun be in that, Ginevra? It won't be a surprise if I just tell you."

"Why does it have to be a surprise," she pouted, making Draco smile again. She did look rather gorgeous when she did that, he decided. "I don't think I like surprises."

"Well maybe I'll just have to change your mind about that one day, hmm?" he continued good naturedly, pulling her to him and grasping her hand gently so that he could Apparate the pair of them to the mystery location. Ginny shivered a little at his touch as a shock travelled lightly up her arm, tingling her nerves. His hand felt strong and warm, encircling hers and tightening firmly in readiness to Apparate her.

Draco spun, pulling her with him, and then a new scenery popped into life around them. Ginny blinked, taking in the new, busier surrounds. Although it was getting quite late, moon large and bright in the cloudless sky, there were still people out and about in the busy little town square, a square, which, she realised, she knew as that of Tinworth, where her brother Bill's cottage was to be found on the outskirts. In front of them stood the large building that was most prominent to the square, the popular restaurant Callidora's, with its large fronted windows spilling out warm light and the noise of a busy, cheerful atmosphere. It was well respected in the wizarding world, she knew, though she had never been to the establishment before herself. Draco's grip on her hand slackened and she relinquished it, reluctantly. Somehow it had felt reassuring.

"Callidora's?" she asked of Draco, surprised. "I've heard lots of good things about this place, but it's supposed to be a bit pricey, isn't it?" she raised her eyebrows.

"Of course," he smirked, "I only frequent the best places, you know."

"…and wouldn't we need a reservation for somewhere like this?" she continued, unperturbed.

"_I _don't need a reservation, don't worry," he said, mouth curving.

When Ginny only raised her eyebrows even more at him he sighed, rolling his eyes.

"So cutting yourself off from your father doesn't extend to cutting yourself off of his money, I suppose," she didn't sound too pleased, but looked more embarrassed at asking this, and it was evident that she was trying not to be judgemental but unable to not be curious.

"Ginny, I have quite a bit of my own money, I've not been sitting around these past few years just living off of his bank balance," Draco tried to explain patiently, but nevertheless irked by her presumption.

"Oh! I didn't mean- sorry, I guess I just assumed that it was the Malfoy riches you were alluding to…" she trailed off, looking even more embarrassed. "I'm really not doing well with this evening, am i?" she muttered in a low voice.

He laughed at her horrified tone. "Well, it is Malfoy riches, it's just _my _Malfoy riches," he clarified, trying not to sound too smug.

She looked up at him again now, curiosity evidently alive and burning in her caramel brown eyes.

"What is it you do, anyway, to earn all these riches? You never said," she asked.

Draco just inclined his head towards the restaurant, putting an arm around her waist to pull her forwards over the cobbles. "Let's save all that for once we're seated, shall we? It's getting colder by the minute out here,"

Ginny shifted guiltily from inside his thick cloak, "that's my fault too," she sighed. "Yes, let's get indoors."

The interior of Callidora's was bedecked in plush purple and burgundy colours, and the air was filled with aromatic and spicy flavours that immediately set Ginny's mouth watering upon stepping through the door. Over the welcome desk was framed a huge portrait of a woman with glittering golden eyes and a dazzling smile, curling her sleek dark locks around a finger as she beamed at them from the plum-coloured background. Ginny could only assume that this must be Callidora herself, one time proprietress. The painting spoke, in a surprisingly resonant, booming voice;

"Table for Two?"

Draco inclined his head and she smiled back in satisfaction, nodding. Then, out of nowhere popped a waiter as if summoned, to show them to their table. They were led to a fairly secluded spot right by one of the large glass windows fronting the store; most of the table was shielded from view by an exotic palm-like plant fanning out in front of it. Draco surprised Ginny by insisting that she take the chair he held out for her first- she wasn't expecting anything so gallant- and then moving around the table to seat himself opposite. He regarded her solemnly, then gave her a small smile. He was so hard to read, she mused, seeing him sit so without emotion; he looked so detached right then that she had no idea what he might be thinking.

"So," she fixed a hard gaze on him, "What do you do to earn all those galleons?" she didn't hesitate in repeating her question, still curious. "It's not fair that I don't know anything about you, when you were reading all about _my _career with the Harpies earlier on," she insisted, pouting again.

"Ginny, we've barely sat down," he shot back, amused. She was going to break him rather easily if she kept up that pouting thing every time she wanted any information. "How about we order some drinks and that, and then you can interrogate me," he drawled, all sarcasm.

She shot him a look, rolling her eyes slightly, but agreed, almost begrudgingly, "Fine, let's get some drinks then,"

Draco indicated subtly and the waiter reappeared from somewhere or other to hand them the heliotrope-coloured drinks menus he was holding. Ginny gazed down the list of options, not really that interested in what she had. "I'll have a glass of mead," she stated, and it immediately appeared in a wine glass on the table in front of her.

She looked back up to Draco, to find him still watching her. As he caught her eye he looked down at his own menu, barely glancing at it before he announced, "Firewhisky," for it to do the same.

Disregarding the menu in favour of the wine glass, she swilled the dark red liquid around the glass absently before posing her question once more. "So am I authorised to ask you about your life, now, or are you going to keep on avoiding my questions, Malfoy?"

"Malfoy?" he asked sceptically, eyebrows arching.

"Well I have only known you as anything other than an arch enemy for less than a day," she shrugged. "and you were irking me with your avoidance techniques,"

"Pfft," he made a disgruntled noise. "I'd rather you didn't revert back to _that_ again, if you don't mind."

"Ok, fine, _Draco,"_ she intoned, voice heavy with sarcasm. "So?"

He sighed. "I'm a potioneer. Nothing too interesting," he finally gave up, seeming embarrassed to talk about himself.

"A potioneer?" she echoed, fascinated. "But that is interesting! You must be really talented to make a living from doing that, and creative, too- and you make enough from that to have 'riches'? I'm impressed," she countered, eyes sparkling with the enthusiasm of her argument.

"Well I confess I might have a little talent," he acknowledged, smug, "but that's not the only source of my so called 'riches'," He rolled his eyes at the term, "I invested a lot of my money in making magical properties and selling them on."

"Really?" Ginny sat up a bit straighter, staring at him. "What does that involve?"

"Oh, you know; buying a muggle property or creating one from scratch, then goes about the process of making it unplottable, putting all kinds of shields and stuff up around it to make it wizard-only, connecting it up to the floo network; all the typical things that make magical homes and businesses secure and easy to set up in, he explained in a bit of a bored drawl.

"I've never really even thought about that before, sounds like a good idea. An entrepreneurial streak, huh?" she eyed him speculatively.

"I'm getting bored talking about myself," he said, trying to change the subject.

"Nuh-uh, I only just _got _you talking about yourself. You're not allowed to be bored yet," she countered, grinning evilly.

"Mmph." He only grunted in reply, choosing to watch her instead. She had gone silent, frowning slightly in her thoughts as if something had just occurred to her.

"Slughorn never invited you to any of his stupid slug clubs in my fifth year," she said. "Really missed a trick, there, didn't he, ? "

Something about Draco's demeanour stiffened. "I was a bit preoccupied that year," Draco said softly, barely audible in fact. "Slughorn wouldn't have exactly seen me at my best in his classes."

Ginny was uncomfortable all of a sudden. It was like the light illuminating his other side had been switched back off again and she had been reminded who she was really having dinner with. What he had been involved in _that year._

Draco closed his eyes in dread, recognising the emotions rolling over her face. He was watching her face carefully for her reaction to that comment, only too aware of the way the shift in conversation had been leading. Always back to his past. He would never escape it. But then her next remark surprised him completely.

"I think Luna told me about this place, Viktor must have brought her here recently."

Sure, it was in a slightly higher pitch than she would normally have spoken, and Draco didn't miss the slight strain attached to the words, but her tone was light; she was choosing to forget about all the past and not attack him about it or judge him. She was handing him a lifeline and changing the topic. He just gazed at her again, speechless. She really was something else; it wasn't just her irresistible beauty that was drawing him towards her, it was this- exactly this. She wasn't like anyone else. And he was so incredibly grateful for it.

Ginny raised her eyebrows at him, seemingly having recovered from that last conversation with its almost-horrible ending, and Draco remembered that she had just made a remark and that she was waiting on him to speak. He struggled to remember the words.

"Luna? As in Looney-"he saw her face and backtracked, "-Luna _Lovegood?_ What would she be doing in a place like this?" He still struggled to keep the obvious incredulity out of his question. It just seemed so very unlikely.

"It must have been that she came with Viktor, her boyfriend. He's always taking her out to swanky restaurants, or his Quidditch press events- she tends to go to some very nice places nowadays," she mused, just relieved that she had successfully steered the conversation into clear waters again.

Something she had just said was making Draco struggle in confusion; his brain was trying to grapple with the obvious pieces and fit them together into something that resembled sense. "Wait, Viktor… and you said Quidditch… you're not serious?" When she only looked back at him with amusement in her eyes, he spluttered,

"Lovegood and _Krum? Viktor Krum? _You have _got _to be kidding me."

"Surprisingly, they work well together," she answered, chortling slightly at his expression. "It's hard to explain, I guess you need to see them together to see it, but it really is _adorable, _them as a couple. They have an odd, kind of balancing-each-other-out thing going on"

"How long has this been going on?" Draco said in disbelief, swallowing down a big gulp of his Firewhisky in the process and looking like the concept was rather too much to handle. "I can't believe I've not read anything about it in the _Prophet_ before, or all the _Witch Weekly_ gossip,"

"Oh, they've been together for ages now, over a year at least, I'm not sure," Ginny said lightly. "They live together and everything- Luna's mostly the reason that he spends so much time over here these days; he trains with my team; you know, the Harpies; while he's here, and then goes back to Bulgaria by Portkey for any of the matches that he's required to play in, or for any internationals."

"Blimey," Draco breathed. "Krum and Lovegood. Never thought I'd hear that one." He shook his head.

"Anyway, Did you just say _Witch Weekly gossip, _as if you actually read it?" she snorted, "Doesn't seem like your thing,"

Draco looked back at her darkly, "I wouldn't, but it's all because of _Pansy,"_ he looked in distaste of this fact, and it was Ginny's cue to smirk and enquire sweetly, her interest heightening slighty despite herself,

"Pansy? Weren't you at school with her?"

"Yeah, that's right; anyway, we're still friends, and she's a columnist for _Weekly_ now, so she makes me read her column every week and tell her what I think. Ugh," he finished, shuddering at the thought.

She snorted, "That bad, huh." Draco just nodded.

Ginny smiled. She still wasn't used to seeing Draco like this or conversing with him like a normal human being; and the biggest surprise of them all was that he was one; capable of being civil. People had much too clouded a vision when it came to Slytherins, or ex-Slytherins, for that matter, she was realising. They just needed to be given a chance, like anyone else.

"We should order some food," Draco declared, coming out of his reverie. "I wasn't joking when I said I was kind of hungry before."

Ginny nodded her agreement and before long they had the food menu for the main courses in front of them, and she was perusing the options once more. There were so many mouth-watering sounding dishes justifying all those lovely aromas that she had smelt upon entering, and it was difficult to choose. She glanced over to Draco to see if he was having as hard a time choosing and caught him staring at her again. Swallowing the instinct to be irritated, she opted for amusement.

"What?" she asked him coolly, a smile playing at the corners of her lips.

"I just find you captivating to watch," he said simply, making no attempt at concealing it or anything. Ginny gaped at him, colouring, then shut her mouth with a snap, realising that it was hanging open at him in disbelief at this bold statement.

"Um…ok," Ginny began, shaking her head and trying to clear her thoughts from the shock of his audacious reply. She cleared her throat, "Do you know what you are having yet?" she asked, "What's good here?"

He smiled back coolly, a bit disappointed with her reaction.

Because it was true, Draco could hardly tear his eyes away long enough to grace the menu with a look; while she was concentrating in a fierce study of its contents, he could study her with silent appreciation, so similar to the way he had seen and watched her in the bookstore that morning. She wore the same rapt attentive expression as she gave proper focus to the menu that she had in her task of browsing the book titles, brow furrowed in a little frown and biting her lower lip in indecision. Her straight fiery hair wasn't exactly in a pristine shape, as the light wind from outside had ruffled it rather a lot, but it still made her look radiant, the strands around her face framing her, bright against her skin, her _creamy _complexion…

He shook himself. "I could order for both of us if you like?" he offered, fully expecting her not to agree to that.

"Oh, ok then, just do that, I can't decide as it _all _sounds so good." She sighed then and looked distractedly out of the window with a sombre face, and with a sinking heart Draco realised that she probably hadn't forgotten the earlier part of the evening as easily as it had appeared. Light as her mood had been since they arrived at the restaurant, he could see now that she was at least beginning to remember the break up now. Great.

Putting these feelings aside, he motioned once more for the young dark-haired waiter that was serving their table and then, ordered quickly, only scanning the food on the menu swiftly once before informing Ginny, "They do good french, here; so I think we'll order that," and then ordering them both a french onion soup, slow roast shoulders of lamb with dauphinoise potatoes and finally, crème brûlée. The first course, the soup, appeared on the placemats instantly as the waiter left.

Ginny was silent through the soup, sipping it distractedly. Draco, brooding over how to get their conversation back on track, was quiet too. Just then she asked another question.

"So what kinds of potions do you make?" she ventured, before adding on the end as another question sprang to mind, "And how do you make a living from it, anyway?"

The soup disappeared and the lamb replaced it almost instantaneously.

"Merlin, you ask a lot of questions," Draco groaned. Ginny just smiled back at him, expectantly. "Not many people have the aptitude or inclination to make up the potions they need for themselves," he shrugged. "It makes for a good business,"

"Right," she said, nodding seriously. Unbidden came a memory of Remus Lupin and his dependence on the Wolfsbane Potion that he had been unable to make himself. "So you can make really difficult things, then, things like, the Wolfsbane draught?"

"Well I wouldn't make a very good potioneer if I couldn't, would i?" he cut her off, smirking.

"Well, ok, no-" she conceded, embarrassedly.

"I don't actually work alone, per se, though," he admitted. "I have a partner in crime in the potioneering field," he said.

"Oh?" she said, surprised. She couldn't imagine he would be a good team player, either.

"Yep, you probably remember him from school, too, actually; Blaise Zabini? He was always brilliant at potions, such an inventive flair."

Ginny was now picking at a perfectly done crème brûlée, contemplative with all the new information about the man in front of her. He was surprising in so many ways.

"Mmm, I do vaguely remember him, haughty Slytherin guy with a famous mother, right?"

Draco chuckled at her description of Blaise. "Yes, I suppose he probably does come across as haughty," he agreed.

"Not a patch on you and _your _arrogance, of course," Ginny interjected playfully, to which Draco grimaced but inclined his head in acknowledgement of nonetheless.

"Touché," Draco conceded, smiling.

Ginny shook her head, amused. "Although I might have to revise my opinion on the 'arrogant Draco'," she began, "as you seem to be doing your utmost to disprove all my earlier preconceptions about you," she sighed. His eyebrows arched as he looked back at her, scrutinizing. His cold eyes bore into her, and she could see just how easy it would be to _maintain_ that image of him in her head, as the icy Slytherin prince, if she knew nothing of his personality and feelings beneath, but the trouble was that now she _did. _He still looked cold and arrogant, and of course, those parts of him were still there, but she now knew better than to assume that that was him in a nutshell, because there was more there. And she was going to uncover all those other parts of him, she was determined of that.

* * *

Leaving the restaurant a while later found Draco in a somewhat sombre mood. All he knew was that he still did not want to give up this girl's company, but that he would have to now, late as it was, and their awkward, fragile 'friendship' that they now had going could probably do without further testing that night. It was still only a matter of hours since their bookshop encounter that very same morning, and he couldn't believe how much had seemed to change since then. Who had she been to him when he had woken up that morning? An insignificant blip on the radar, the girl in the headlines alongside Potter, that was all.

What was she now? He had no idea.

They had stepped back out into the chilly town square, and Draco had graciously insisted that Ginny retain his cloak, which she now had on again.

"So," he began awkwardly, "I guess this is it, then. End of our little meander,"

He sounded resigned, and unhappy. Ginny peered up at him, concerned. "Is that supposed to mean the end of the evening or the end of everything?"

He looked right back at her, eyes sharp and searching. "Is there a difference?"

"Of course there is." She stated simply. "Goodnight, Draco," she said, hesitating, then reaching forward to give him a brisk hug. Her warm body pressed up against him and Draco felt the craziest urge to pull her even tighter to him and to not let her go again as she pulled away from the brief press, but he didn't act on it, on the contrary remaining rather too stiff and awkward and not returning any feeling. Her face seemed to falter a bit as she drew away, but then she said,

"I'll see you again, soon, I hope," and Draco's heart gave the tiniest little leap at that simplest of statements.

"I'll hold you to it, you know," he replied, in what he hoped was his usual confident drawl.

She flashed him a wry smile, "Well, I suppose I'd better be Apparating home, gosh it's late, how did time go by so quickly this evening?"

"Will you be alright Apparating home?" Draco started, then stopped himself from any more concerned questions; he was being ridiculous.

"Yes, thank you," she said, he eyes practically twinkling with laughter at his concern.

"Well you go first, & then I'll feel better that you've got back safely," he insisted.

"Well, wait, do you want your cloak back before I disappear with it?" she said, already flipping her long loose hair aside and twisting round to undo the intricate silver clasp at her shoulder, but he stopped her before she could manage it, catching her hands and brushing them away, and in a second movement as if he was hardly able to stop himself, going back to her shoulder to catch the locks of hair tumbling backward, and running his fingers slightly through the ends, sweeping her hair forward to settle back in its position framing her face, covering the clasp from sight. Her breath caught a little as his icy fingers brushed her collarbone, and she stared up at him with wide eyes. All of a sudden she was aware of an electricity that had settled between them, and panicking, she stepped away. He had been about to kiss her again. Had he been about to kiss her?

Draco struggled to find words again. "Keep it," his harsh cold voice rose, too harsh again after her obvious step away from him. "You're not taking it off till you're safe and warm _inside," _he stressed,_ "_and if you must, think of it as an incentive to see me again some time, so you can return it," he added. Damn it if he was going to let her disappear that easily.

"Fine," she agreed quietly, turning and moving with him back out into the middle of the square. Just before she turned she looked up at him in a final goodbye.

"It was nice this evening, having dinner with you," she admitted, in almost a whisper. She had no idea why she was speaking so quietly. "The first part of the evening wasn't so hot, but you made me forget it a bit," she gave a sad smile.

"It was nice having dinner with you too, Ginevra Weasley." Draco returned in a mock bow, bringing another grin to her lips before she departed. "Much better I suspect than if we'd gone through the palaver of the arranged one," he drawled.

"I'm going to go now," she declared, still standing there and making no more attempt to move, either.

"Go on then," Draco responded wryly. They just looked at each other for a long moment, then, before Ginny turned and was gone. Draco looked on at the spot where she had disappeared, wondering what she really had become; and how significant; to him.

He too, turned and apparated away.

* * *

_Now please hit the review button…!_


	5. Familaritas

AN - I would like to apologise for the ridiculously long absence from this story – I don't have a good enough excuse for leaving it quite _this _long – but I'm afraid I lost my muse for a bit after having to take a necessary break. Suffice to say I'm going to be continuing with the fic now so if there's anyone reading from before I'll include a little summary below here for you if you have forgotten what was happening and don't want to read the first few chapters again. I had to read them myself to get back where I was, so I did do a bit of editing and cleaning up to all the previous chapters, but nothing significant has changed. Oh, and I would like to find a beta reader to act as a second pair of eyes over my story so if anyone is interested please contact me! Thanks for reading, and a** big thank you to everyone who has reviewed** so far, all your feedback has been wonderfully encouraging!

Quick Summary Chapters 1-4;

-Harry and Ginny have had an argument resulting in a break up. Ron & Hermione have the idea to invite Ginny over for dinner on the pretence of wedding plans and then Harry can talk to her there to try and resolve things.

-Ginny bumps into Draco in Diagon Alley while sheltering from the rain. At first she gets angry with him when she catches him spying on her through the bookshelves, but then he makes a scathing comment and she breaks down in tears. An uncomfortable Draco tries to comfort her and she finds herself kissing him. They both depart from the bookshop, Draco feeling very drawn to G but unable to act on it due to his debt to Harry.

-Draco receives an owl from G inviting him to dinner with her at Ron & Hermiones. Suffice to say it doesn't go too well and Ginny storms out with him in tow after properly ending it with an upset Harry.

-Draco insists on taking Ginny to dinner. They talk and find some things out about each other- both of their perceptions are changing rapidly.

**Chapter 5 – Familiaritas **

Ginny silently cursed herself as the water continued to beat down on her hunched up form. She was sat in the base of the large chrome and glass shower as the water ran steadily, already done with washing but unable to get herself bodily back up and out of the shower. She just let it continue running, rather hoping it would wash away everything that had happened the day before down the drain with it.

She could have handled it all better. She _should _have handled Harry better. He deserved more from her than such easy anger that had flared up and stopped her from being gentler with him. They had been together a long time, after all. Well, hopefully now he _would_ be able to find someone more deserving of him. With time. She wondered idly if she should go and try to explain to him more, and apologise for just walking out on him like that the evening before, or if she should just let him be for a while and keep her distance. He had just made her so angry.

She didn't even want to think about the rest of what had happened yesterday, but her thoughts seemed to be incapable of staying away from it, involuntarily leading her back to dwell there when she wasn't actively thinking about something else.

Draco bloody Malfoy.

Involuntarily into her mind sprang the feel of his lips urgently pressing back against hers from when she had kissed him in the bookstore. She pushed it away, trying to repress that memory in particular amongst all the others. She wished she hadn't done it. She had been feeling wretchedly guilty about it ever since, especially since she had flared up at Harry just the evening before for accusing her of cheating on him. Well, technically she _hadn't _been, they'd already been broken up for a week by then, and besides, it didn't change anything between them, and it certainly didn't influence her decision to properly end it with him last night when she had realised how little they had left to mend. And it had only been a stupid kiss anyway, _that_ she had put a stop to, so she had absolutely no reason to feel guilty for it.

She had to stay away from Draco until she had her emotions sorted through though. She was going through a break up. She really genuinely did want to be friends with him now, and she was certain that he needed a few more in his life, from the little he had said or indicated, anyway, about how it had been for him since the defeat. She could easily imagine how it was; people in the wizarding world held onto prejudices concerning the war. He would still be seen as a death eater in a lot of eyes, despite how he might have changed. Besides, she had practically promised him last night that she would be seeing him again. Just… she had to leave everything to settle for a few days. Mostly herself. Yesterday had been a very confusing day. Maybe Draco would have come to his senses by then anyway and realised that he didn't want to get to know a Weasley. She wouldn't hold it against him if he felt awkward.

She wearily pulled herself up from where she had sunk and pulled the sopping mass of hair back from her face, letting it hang down her back while she shut the water off, then stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel, hugging it around herself. She hadn't realised how cold she'd let the water get. Securing the towel around her figure, she grabbed her wand from where it was lying next to the basin and cast a drying charm on her hair, and then the rest of her body.

Having exited the spacious en-suite into the bedroom she quickly found her clothes from the night before and pulled them on again. They would have to do, as she hadn't been home before coming pleading to Luna to let her stay the night at her apartment. She hadn't wanted to go home in case Ron or Hermione came looking for her in the morning before she had worked up the nerve to face them. She knew that sooner or later she would have to answer to one or the other about last night, as they were bound to be unhappy with the way that she had treated Harry and then stormed out, but she had just wanted to fall asleep and _not _worry about that in the morning.

Well, time to go face Luna. Ginny at least knew that she could count on her not to judge her or to press her too much with loads of questions about why she was hiding out at her place. She really was the best friend for simply being content to be around and not pry into everything, like that.

As she walked out of the guest bedroom into the living space of the large apartment she could smell pancakes cooking from the kitchen. She sniffed hopefully and wandered in that direction, coming out into the open plan space and up to the shiny black bar of the kitchen as Krum turned from the stove, tipping another pancake out onto a large stack on a plate before her on the counter.

"Morning, Ginny," he said to her graciously as he glanced up at her before turning to deposit the pan back on the stove where it had been resting. "Luna told me you vere here. Did you haff a good sleep?"

"Oh, um, yes thank you," she stammered slightly, blushing, taking in his bare chest and grey pyjama bottoms that were the only thing he was wearing while he cooked breakfast. She hadn't considered that Viktor would still be here when she woke, instead of Luna, and it was a bit embarrassing given his half-dressed state. She tried not to stare, glancing down at the pancakes on the counter and trying to look anywhere but at his bare chest, which was actually quite impressively toned, no surprises there since he was a fit and healthy Quidditch player; but still. Not exactly proper to stare. "Thank you so much for letting me crash here last night, you and Luna are very nice to let me, and I promise I won't be making a habit of it," she said embarrassedly, studiously examining the granite of the worktop and letting her fingers brush over the cool stone as she sat back in the nearest bar stool.

"No problem, Gin, you are velcome to be staying vith us venn-ever you need to," he intoned sincerely in his slightly gruff accent. His command of English had come on leaps and bounds since she had first met him, but he still had a rather pronounced drawl.

"Thanks," she grinned back, "I appreciate it, but I hope not to intrude too much on your hospitality, nevertheless,"

"Now take some Pancakes," he commanded gruffly, pushing a plate towards her and indicating the serving dish piled high with them that he had finished adding to.

As Ginny reached for the pancakes to start loading her plate compliantly, Luna bounded in, coming to a stop beside Viktor and standing up on her tip-toes to give him a light kiss. It was funny how she had to reach up to do that despite Viktor's rather pronounced slouch; he was still rather a tall man. Ginny observed the couple as Viktor mumbled to Luna gently, holding her waist, and smiled to herself; they made such a cute pair. They positively radiated happiness.

Luna turned to greet her friend. "Sleep ok, Gin?" she asked airily, as Viktor snagged another couple of pancakes onto a plate and pushed it gently into her hand. She accepted it, turning a gentle smile on him, and sat down in the bar stool next to Ginny. He looked after her so well, Ginny thought to herself.

"Yes thanks, Viktor already asked," Ginny replied. "Thank you again for letting me stay when I just turned up unexpectedly late at night like that, I swear it won't happen again," she grinned sheepishly.

"It was nothing, Ginny, really," Luna waved it off in a vague fashion, "I love having you around, never mind how inconvenient it is when you arrive," she said lightheartedly, in her bluntly truthful manner.

Ginny just blushed, feeling awkward.

"So why did you turn up in the middle of the night, anyway? Why are you hiding out here?"

For such a dreamy and absentminded person, Luna had an uncanny ability to know things. Like the fact that she was hiding out and avoiding people right now. Still, she knew that Luna was the one person who wouldn't press her about it if she didn't want to tell her.

"I had a... kind of argument with Harry at Ron & Hermione's last night." She started, evasively. "I made it permanent. The break-up, that is," she conceded. "It's definitely over."

"Ah," Luna said sympathetically, nodding her head, "I'm not surprised. Well, at least you both know now, and you can start moving on," she said wisely, taking another bite of her pancake.

"You're not surprised?" Ginny said, startled.

"No," Luna said confidently, "It's been fairly obvious for a while now that you two weren't happy anymore."

"It was?" Ginny asked, surprised. "Could have told me, if it was that obvious," she said a bit moodily.

Luna smiled sadly. "It was something you could only have come to know by yourself with time," she said sagely.

"Yep…" Ginny was glad that Luna accepted things as they were without question so easily. She was sure that no-one else, not Hermione or her family, were going to understand the break up quite so easily. The whole wizarding world seemed to think that they were 'the perfect couple' or something. It was really quite annoying always having such an audience to their relationship. That probably hadn't made it any easier on either of them.

The three of them ate in a companiable silence for a while after that. Viktor was always content to say little, and Luna and Ginny were good enough friends that they could also enjoy the time without having to speak to fill the silence all the time. Ginny half found herself wanting to confide in Luna about the rest of her evening; telling someone would be a relief, as well as knowing what Luna thought about it; but Viktor's presence put her off of speaking up. She was good friends with Viktor too and trained with him most days at practice at the moment, but she still didn't feel exactly confident with telling him all about her private life. It was girl talk, to be honest.

Just then a ringing interspersed the air of the flat for a split second before stopping again. Viktor stood up and strode over to a cabinet that held a little white orb. He pulled out his wand and muttered a quick incantation under his breath, tapping the orb. A light came to life suddenly inside, and Ginny could discern a whirl of colour and movement, but she couldn't clearly see what it showed from where she was sat a little distance away. Viktor watched it intently for a second, and then looked back over at the girls, who were both watching him side by side from the bar, Luna with a dreamily curious look on her face.

"Did you say you vere hiding out from Harry, Ron and Hermione?" he asked her, a little frown on his face.

"Erm, yeah. Why?" Ginny answered, apprehension growing in her.

"Vell, Hermione just apparated outside the building," Viktor explained. "She is on her vay up here right now."

"Hell," Ginny muttered, defeated. She should have known that the older girl would find her here if she was determined enough to get a hold of her. It wasn't such a stretch to realize that she might take shelter with Luna, once she realized that she hadn't returned to the Burrow.

"You can floo out now before she catches you here, if you'd like," Luna offered, indicating the smart black hearth.

Ginny looked over at it wistfully but shook her head. "Nah, she'll catch up with me sooner or later, even if I delay it for a while by leaving. I might as well face the tempest now," she muttered, resigned.

Luna looked at her sympathetically and moved to clear their plates, while Viktor moved to get the door to their apartment. "Besides, wouldn't want her thinking I went home with Draco if she couldn't find me," she muttered stormily under her own breath. She hadn't meant for Luna to hear her as she said it, but the other girl looked back over at her curiously, obviously intrigued by what that meant. Ginny just gave her a very slight shake of the head, indicating that she didn't want to talk about it right now. Luna smiled back and turned to wipe the dishes clean with a flick of her wand, before returning them to the cabinet in front of her. Ginny gazed out of their huge windows looking out over London as she waited for the other witch to come in and find her, when the onslaught would undoubtedly begin. Luna and Viktor's apartment was quite high up, being a penthouse apartment that Viktor had purchased for them the year before, and it really did have quite a spectacular set of views over the city. She could gaze out at them for quite a while if she had the time to stay here and just watch. The apartment itself was a very smart, minimalist affair, with the occasional eclectic piece of decoration that was obviously Luna's influence, but overall Viktor had kept the place simple and clean. It spoke volumes of his wealth; the discreet elegance and quality; and Ginny did admire his taste and the way he grounded Luna's eccentricities of style and turned them into focal points.

She was brought out of her reverie by Hermione's arrival.

"Hermione." She heard Viktor's gruff greeting as he opened the door. She turned to see her, tensing. Hermione looked rather embarrassed by Viktor's state of undress too, blushing as she came in to the room. Then she spotted Ginny and her expression instantly turned sour. Ginny groaned inwardly.

"Ginny! There you are. Molly hadn't seen you when I went there looking for you so I thought it was only logical you might have come here," she said as she strode up to her purposefully. Viktor disappeared off down the hall, presumably to put some more clothes on. Hermione glanced back at him distractedly before turning back to Ginny, disappointment and concern clearly etched on her face. "What was that about last night? First of all, why the hell would you bring Malfoy of all people to dinner, and then why did you just storm off like that? Harry was distraught! Do you have any idea how hurtful that was to him? I mean, ok, if you two are over then fine, that's your prerogative, but I mean, you could have been a bit more _tactful _about it, couldn't you? Ron is going to kill you when he gets a hold of you. You're lucky I found you first,"

Ginny bit back an angry retort, slightly annoyed by the reprimanding despite knowing she full well deserved most of it. Luna was watching the two of them slightly wide-eyed, obviously interested in the revelation about the involvement of Malfoy this conversation had brought, a fact that her friend conveniently hadn't told her yet.

"Look, Hermione," Ginny began a bit forced, trying valiantly to keep her voice level and calm, "I only stormed off because he accused me of _cheating_ _on him,_ it's not like I planned any of it, especially not _hurting him, _and it's not like I even knew he was going to be there_ last night-" _

"Were you?" Hermione interjected stonily, cutting her off.

Ginny looked at her blankly for a second, "Was I what?" she asked, infuriated.

"Were you cheating on him, though?" She continued bluntly, looking steely-eyed at Ginny. As she said it Ginny's face clouded with anger, getting redder, "Because if you were-" She didn't finish, throwing down a magazine that had been clutched tightly in her hand on the counter in front of them. Ginny hadn't even noticed that she was holding it until she did that, and looked at it in confusion. It took a moment to understand what she was seeing.

It was opened to a page with a number of columns on it, but the largest one had a bold headline that stood out, reading clearly across the page,

'_Are the Wonder-couple in jeopardy? Witch weekly columnist Pansy Parkinson exclusively learns of possible stormy love affair between the red-haired beauty who stole the Hero's heart and notorious bachelor of the wizarding world, Draco Malfoy.' _

Ginny spluttered indignantly, "Stormy love affair?" she all but cried in rage, unable to stay seated. She jumped out of the seat and started pacing angrily, unable to contain herself in any still form. "What the hell would-" she grasped for words, "_that cow_, know about it, either? Where the hell is she getting her information?" but even as she said it, words of Draco's were coming back to haunt her from the evening before. '_we're still friends, and she's a columnist for Weekly now'_ He wouldn't have talked to her, would he? She had a horrible sinking feeling in her stomach at the thought, which she didn't really understand.

Hermione snatched the magazine back up from where she had thrown it and threw Ginny a piercing look, before scanning the column, and then reading aloud;

"_According to sources, wealthy bachelor and entrepreneur Malfoy was spotted last night at trendy up-market hotspot Callidora's of TInworth enjoying an intimate dinner for two with well known other-half of Wizarding World Hero Harry Potter, Miss Ginevra Weasley. Sources do not know where Harry Potter was during this interlude or if he even knew about the obviously friendly meeting between his girlfriend and old school rival," _she read, eyeing Ginny carefully for her reaction. "Pretty clear where she got her information, I'd say; you were seen; and we both know for a fact that you left with him last night!"

"I'm allowed to go to dinner with a friend!" Ginny shot back indignantly. "Me, you and Luna go out all the time!"

"Yes, but I'm fairly certain no one would think to write about _that _in a gossip column, Ginny," Hermione said exasperatedly. "You went to dinner with him? Are you seriously telling me that there is nothing going on between you two?"

"Of course that is what I'm telling you!" Ginny cried. "We were supposed to be having dinner at your place, remember? We were just getting some food as friends, since that is what I originally invited him for! Besides, I'm not with Harry anymore, so I can see who I want," she said a bit petulantly. "That stupid cow lives for gossip, everything she writes is trash,"

"Ok!" Hermione said, trying to calm the other girl down a bit. "If you say that you and him are friends, then I believe you," she said placatingly. She perched on another chair and faced Ginny and Luna. "Thought you should hear about that stupid article, , though, anyway. You know that I don't believe everything I read in the papers, Ginny, but I had to ask after last night."

Ginny just glowered at her.

"So you and Harry… you're really over?" she asked softly.

Ginny sighed. "Yes, Hermione," she replied softly. "I know I hurt him last night, but we've been falling apart for ages. it's just not working anymore. I'm sorry I had to tell him like that, though,"

Hermione exchanged a glance with Luna. She sighed, reaching over and hugging her future sister in law. "I know, Gin. You've looked rocky for a while. Me and Ron hoped you would sort it out, but I guess deep down, we could both see you had this coming," she said gently.

Ginny returned the hug, holding onto her tightly for a second, then sat back and stared at the girl. "What?" she asked incredulously. "You too? How come this was so obvious to everyone but me?"

"When you've been in a relationship as long as the two of you… you were just trying to hold onto the love you used to share, I guess, I don't know. Harry is still cut up about it, though, Gin, I think you should let him have his space for a while- I'll try to keep him from seeing that article though, probably best…"

Ginny nodded numbly. She couldn't believe it had been so clear to all of her friends that she had been unhappy when she hadn't realized herself.

"and who knows, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Draco _was interested…?"_ she said speculatively, eyeing Ginny.

The other girl immediately went beet red again in typical Weasley fashion. "What?" she spluttered. "Why on earth would _that _be 'not so bad'?" she asked.

"I don't know…If you like him too… it could be good for you, help you move on," Hermione said tentatively. "I'm just saying, if you did like him… it wouldn't be the best timing, but…"

Ginny gaped at her. "I've _just _come out of a long term relationship, with your best friend no less, and you want me to date Draco Malfoy?"

Luna was smiling at her too now. She looked at the pair of them, flabbergasted.

"Well obviously I don't _want _you to date Draco Malfoy; I'm just saying, if you have feelings for him, you don't have to feel like you can't date him because we all disapprove, or something. You and Harry have been dead in the water for ages. Now you're single. It would be ok…"

"I do not have feelings for Draco Malfoy," Ginny said adamantly, glaring at her two friends. "I just saw another side of him the other day and I think he could do with a friend, that's all." She tried to banish the picture of him that sprang into her head suddenly, of him as he had been in the restaurant, lounging gracefully in the chair opposite, grey eyes boring into hers with such intensity – and then afterwards when they had stepped outside and he had been so close to her, and his hand had brushed her skin as he adjusted her hair… Ginny fought back an involuntary shiver at the thought, hoping that it hadn't been noticed.

"Ok then." Hermione nodded, simply. Ginny narrowed her eyes at the slight smirk on the other woman's face.

Viktor chose that moment to reappear. He was dressed in his Quidditch garb and carrying a very expensive looking broom over his shoulder.

"I am off to the pitch to train; are you coming Ginny?" he addressed himself to her as he strode over to stand behind Luna's chair.

"Oh, right; we have a practice this morning, don't we? It had kind of slipped my mind that it was earlier than usual today," she replied, jumping up from her seat in reaction. "I'll meet you there, I need to go back home to grab my things first," she said, feeling a bit flustered by the absence of her usual routine and the conversation she had just been having. She shot Hermione another disconcerted glance, but the other woman just smiled sweetly back at her.

"I'll see you later, Honey," Viktor mumbled gruffly in a low voice up against Luna's ear, pulling her closer and giving her a peck on the cheek goodbye. Luna turned an adoring gaze on him, leaning back into his hold and pulling him down to claim his lips. She gave him a chaste kiss before allowing him to pull away; he stepped back and apparated with a pop from the room, leaving the three of them.

"I should go too," Ginny said briskly, not looking at her two friends too closely to avoid more interrogation about things that she did not want to talk about.

"We'll talk soon," Luna replied softly, giving her a gentle smile as she bid her goodbye.

Ginny gave her friend a quick hug and then said a brisk, "See you," towards Hermione, whom she was still feeling rather more icily disposed towards than usual, before taking her leave.

Luna and Hermione looked at each other. "She likes him, doesn't she?" Hermione said to the other girl.

Luna sighed softly as she gazed back at her. "Yes, I think she does," she replied sadly.

"I wonder how long it will be until she can admit that and just go with her feelings, though," Hermione sighed heavily. "The boys are not going to happy if she starts dating him."

* * *

Draco stormed through the reception of the Witch Weekly editorial offices, glaring murderously at the timid receptionist who had looked as if she was about to object to his bullish entrance. The mousy-brown haired witch shrank back, thinking better of it and sitting back at the desk uncertainly as he entered the lift, punching the button to the fifth floor angrily. The grille slid closed over the lift and it shuddered to life. Draco tapped his foot impatiently until it reached the floor where Pansy's office was located, and then strode into the open-plan space, ignoring the curious stares and nervous looks that people gave him as he strode past their cubicles on a direct route to her office at the far end of the long, bustling newsroom. She was in a private office with a glass door to the left of the main aisle. He set a collision course for her door as soon as he cleared the final cubicle, not bothering to knock when he reached it but barging straight in, making the young man standing by Pansy's desk taking notes jump and look up at him, startled.

Pansy was lounging languorously in a large leather swivel-chair with its back to him, and all he could see of her was her arm where it was draped relaxedly across the armrest, gesturing lazily to her assistant as she dictated a set of commands to him in a snappish voice.

"What the hell do you think you are playing at?" He growled dangerously, not bothering with pleasantries.

She spun around in her chair to see him, a delighted smile playing across her lips as she saw who had come barging into her office, not that she was particularly surprised.

"Draco! How lovely of you to come and visit," she said smirking.

"Quit playing loveliness and answer for this disgrace," he said in disgusted tones, indicating the most recent copy of Witch Weekly that he had brought with him.

Pansy just raised an eyebrow at him and returned his less-than-friendly stare coolly. She dismissed her assistant with an impatient wave of her hand. He got the picture and scurried out the door, looking glad not to be sticking around in there while Draco was looking so angry.

Pansy sighed and uncrossed her long bare legs, getting to her feet. She was wearing an elegant short brown skirt and very high shiny black heels that he was sure intimidated her workers with their sharp clicking. She already cut quite the imposing path as it was, being one of the least easily intimidated people that Draco knew, so Merlin only knew why she needed such statement footwear. She placed her hands on her hips as she squared up to him, shaking her curling blond locks out of her face and looking him straight in the eye as she addressed him.

"You're the one who is having dinner with the Weaslette now, so don't go getting all angry with me when it gets splashed all over the papers, darling," she sneered, an evil playful glint in her eyes, "She is one half of the wizarding world's beloved _wonder-couple _or whatever the hell you want to call them, after all, so what did you expect?"

"I expected better from my _friends," _he glowered at her, bearing down on her skinny form.

"Yes, well, if it wasn't me it would just be someone else," she said, batting it away dismissively. "and you'll get more favourable treatment _here, _honey,"

"You call such baseless phrases as 'stormy love-affair' _favourable _to me, Pans?" he spat, "You of all people know what kind of treatment I have to put up with from the wider public these days, _as it is, _without you spreading such malignant gossip _like this _around about me," he said with a hint of despair. "Besides, she's not a part of the bloody 'wonder-couple', anymore, anyway," he added, using the term with evident bitter taste.

"Oh really?" Pansy's lips curled as she sidled up closer to him, flicking her hair and staring at him in an engaging, almost flirtatious manner. "Do tell me _all _about it," she purred.

"So you can splash even more vile rumours about me all over your precious gossip column? No thanks," he sneered harshly, pushing her bodily away.

She pouted. "I'm sorry Draco, I shouldn't have written it," she conceded, obviously a bit put out. "But it is my _job," _she wailed petulantly. "and people are very interested in the love life of the bloody saviour, for some reason,"

"Hmph," Draco grunted, still upset. "What are you doing, anyway, having me bloody followed or something?"

"Not at all, but I do have tabs kept on the comings and goings from certain well attended establishments amongst the rich and famous that are my clientele," she admitted, smugly. "It obviously delivers, don't you agree?"

Draco just continued to glower at her.

"So…" she said leadingly.

"So what?" he snapped.

"So… aren't you going to tell me what happened?" she asked, obviously dying for him to tell her. "The _Weaslette?" _

Draco sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "There is nothing going on between myself and Ginevra," he said through clenched teeth.

"_Ginevra?_ Since when do you call her _Ginevra_?" Pansy squealed derisively. "Sure, there's nothing going on."

"There's not!" he said heatedly. "Not that I would mind if there was," he admitted grudgingly. Pansy gaped at him.

"What?" she gasped, amazed. "You mean you actually like her? Has she really split up with Potter then?"

"Look, I met up with her again, she invited me to dinner _as friends, _and we had dinner _as friends. _I'm pretty sure she's not interested in much else right now," he said bitterly. "But she ended it with Potter. They aren't seeing each other anymore."

Pansy gazed at him, wide eyed. She shook herself, focusing on one thing at a time. "Well well," she breathed, "this is a little scandal just waiting to be tapped into," she mused. "Any idea _why _they broke up then, if it wasn't about you?"

"Now look here," Draco began heatedly, getting angry again, "You're not to print anything malicious about Ginny, either; she doesn't deserve any of that!" he argued. "You do and you'll have to answer to me,"

Pansy took a step back from him, eyeing him with yet more shock. "What has gotten into you? She's really gotten under your skin, somehow, hasn't she? What the hell is so special about her, huh, Draco?"

He shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable with her line of questioning. Eventually he responded. "She's not like everyone else. She… she accepted that I've changed. Sure, I ran into her and she was rather hostile just like everyone else, but then… something happened and I think she saw me in another light," he explained very quietly. He wasn't looking at her anymore, choosing to stare at his feet. He felt Pansy moving closer to him again. She put her hand on his chest.

"Well if you just want someone who understands you, Draco, _I_ understand you,"she purred, wrapping herself around him. "You don't need that red-headed Weaselette for that,"

He shifted away from her angrily, extricating her arms from around his waist with force and pushing them back to her chest firmly. "We've been there, Pans. I'm not interested."

"Fine," she snapped, "Go see if you can weasel you way into _her _knickers, then," she said slightly tearfully, turning away from him.

"Pans," he sighed, running a hand exasperatedly through his sleek blond hair, "Don't do this. Please. We're friends. And, just, please do not print anything inflammatory about her. For me?" he asked a bit desperately.

"Fine." She repeated, still not turning around.

He closed the gap between them and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Pans?"

She took a shuddering breath and turned slowly back around to face him, looking morose. "Sorry." She muttered. She buried her face in his shoulder dramatically. "I didn't mean to hurt you, or to come onto you, I don't want to ruin our friendship like that," came the muffled words. Draco just rolled his eyes, and held her patiently. This was just Pansy. He'd learnt to deal with her playful and capricious nature over the years that they had grown up together. Occassionally she would throw herself at him, usually when she felt her favour with him felt threatened, for some reason.

She pulled herself upright again and took a deep breath, unconsciously pulling at the hem of her blouse to straighten it as she went back over to her desk and perched on the edge, bracing herself with her arms against it. "I won't print anything inflammatory about her, I promise. I've got enough juicy tidbits for next weeks column anyway; there's a Ministry worker in the Department of International Magical Cooperation who is getting a bit too friendly with the Portuguese Minister's wife," she said, smirking evilly again. "His own wife wasn't too pleased about it when she found out, needless to say, and has given me a rather nice little interview,"

Draco laughed, shaking his head ruefully.

* * *

Ginny apparated to the by-now familiar pitch in the northwest of Wales; the home ground for her squad; the Holyhead Harpies. She had almost daily training sessions with her team-mates here, mostly in the afternoons or late mornings since they couldn't manage to drag Romola out of bed to train with them too early. Within the last couple of months they had had the welcome addition to their training practice of Viktor Krum. This was mostly due to Ginny's friendship with him and Luna outside the sport; it made her team a logical choice when he decided that it had become necessary to have a place to train in Britain during the Quidditch season. He was unwilling to apparate such long distances every day to his home training ground.

Ginny's squad didn't typically train with males, being the sole Witch-only team in the British Isles, but they had gladly made the exception to allow Krum to train with them due to his stratospheric standing in the sport and obvious skill. He had proven to be a real boon in their arsenal thus far in their training for the new season, teaching them to master a variety of new skills, in particular helping them to perfect his signature move, the Wronski Feint. Thankfully it wasn't a conflict of interest for his own team to be teaching them new moves, as there were no international matches being played at a squad level anymore except for the odd friendly, and none of the team members except for their captain Gwenog played on the England side. Gwenog generally thought herself above learning any new tricks that Krum had to teach them, considering that she had been in the sport for almost fifteen years now, and obviously being, in her own words, infinitely better already than any_ Warlock could hope to be. _

Ginny grinned as she spotted Krum already up in the air with at least two of her team mates and their trainer Patrick, who looked to be drilling them on their sloth grip rolls. They were following each other in circuits round the pitch, when the leader would suddenly make a halt on their broom, forcing the others to roll on their own brooms and dodge the leader, who would then tack onto the back of the team and the next person would take the lead for the lap until they pulled their surprise stop.

She looked over as two more of her teammates, Romola Kirk and Jennifer Pickett, came out of the changing room nearby, banging the door behind them. "Hey Gin, ready for some serious formation drilling, I hope," Jennifer called out to her in greeting, as the pair spotted her and strolled over in her direction. Jennifer, another chaser on the team, was a lively blonde known for her close-knit team playing with the other chasers, and off the pitch, for her bubbly, spirited nature. Romola, another notorious Harpies squad member, was a tall, busty woman, with long, thick curly black hair and a curvaceous figure popular with the male fans. She was the second beater alongside their captain, Gwenog Jones. She was swinging her beaters bat around in her hand, obviously impatient to get up in the air.

"Ginny," she nodded in greeting as they came level, but then she started looking at her team mate speculatively. "Hey, have you by any chance seen the copy of Witch Weekly that came out this morning?" she asked inquisitively, looking at Jennifer as if not sure whether they should mention it or not.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Ugh, don't even mention that rag to me," she said trying to grin and brush it off, though she was a bit surprised and not particularly enthusiastic about the idea that all of her teammates apparently seemed to know about that already.

"You've heard about it then," Jennifer said, her blue eyes sparkling with concern but also evident interest, "Well that's a relief, we weren't sure how to tell you that you were the latest target in Parkinson's column; but you have to tell us- did you really have dinner with _Draco Malfoy _last night?"

"Um… yes, I did actually, not that there's anything like _she _was insinuating going on," Ginny replied frankly, "He's just a new friend,"

"Ooh, really?" Jennifer breathed, wide eyed. "What's he like? Well if he's a new friend of yours, maybe you could introduce me some time or other, huh? I hear he's a very gallant date," she said dreamily.

Ginny stared at her blankly for a second, then answered a bit forcefully, "You'd be interested in dating him?" For some reason her feelings for the other girl had just turned a bit cold. She knew that the girl was quite popular and was frequently changing men, but her and Draco? For some reason the idea stirred some uncharitable feelings in her head. Probably just all those confused emotions that she had right now because of the break up.

"Sure, why not?" she grinned, "I hear he's quite well off, too; isn't he? I'm sure he'd be more than capable of showing me a good time,"

"Ermm, yeah, well…" Ginny started, trying to keep her cheerful façade, but Romola was rolling her eyes and looking over towards the pitch where the rest of the team were clearly now waiting for them,

"Enough time to discuss your hectic love life, later, Jen, we should be joining in with practice," she said, trying to drag the bubbly blonde towards the pitch by the arm. Ginny blushed, grateful that she didn't have to finish an answer for that.

"tell them I'll be right over, Romola, I'm just going to drop some of my things in the changing room quick," she garbled quickly to the taller girl, adding, "You can start without me!" as she took a few steps backward and the others continued on to the pitch. Romola nodded her affirmation and Ginny turned, sprinting to the changing room and in. She dug in her pocket for her wand and went over to the lockers, shoving it in one of them. She was already in her Quidditch garb, so she didn't need to change, but she didn't want to be flying around with her wand stuck in her pocket where it could get damaged. She picked up a hairbrush and quickly proceeded to tie her hair back out of her way; couldn't fly with such wild long locks as hers all lose to get in her way. That done, she shouldered her broom again and made for the exit, opening the door. She pulled it wide and stepped out – only to come face to face with none other than Malfoy himself. She started, almost falling back over the door frame in her haste to back up a step, having literally almost bounded straight into his chest, so close to the door had he been when she had made to walk through it.

"Woah, easy!" he exclaimed, instinctively grabbing her arm and stopping her from falling back properly into the door as she made her clumsy step backwards. "Sorry- I startled you. Didn't mean-"

"What are you doing here?" she rushed, breathless, gazing up at him. She suddenly realised how close he was still, and glanced nervously at her arm. He followed her gaze. "Um… my arm," she began leadingly

"Sorry," he gasped, releasing her from the strong grip he had used to catch her, and looking a bit embarrassed. "Um… your teammate- long dark hair, tall- she said I'd find you in here," he explained, motioning with his hand back out towards the pitch.

"Romola," she verified, still staring at him. "But what are you_ doing, here?_" she continued, mystified. She was feeling a bit light-headed. Hopefully that was just the surprise, she had a whole Quidditch practice to run yet.

His dark grey eyes stared back into hers unwaveringly as he drank her in. She didn't feel able to break the eye-contact and look away; it was like she was mesmerised. "Oh, um sorry. Well, kind of difficult to explain if you haven't seen it yet, which I'm kind of hoping you haven't really, but, well – there was this article in Witch Weekly this morning-" he started garbling, looking a lot more embarrassed now, an actual tinge of red evident over his pale cheekbones. It was rare to see any colour on his pale skin, from what she remembered.

"The article Pansy wrote." She stopped him before he could get any further. "Don't worry, I've seen it," she sighed grimly, gazing up at him.

"Oh. Right," Draco cringed, looking like this was rather more worrisome actually. "Well, I just wanted to come and find you and apologise for the article," he took a deep breath, "I remembered telling you that I am still friends with Pansy. I had no idea she would write anything like that about you or I would have stopped her, I swear; I just didn't want you to think that I was somehow aware of it or responsible for it. I've already spoken to her and you don't have to worry about her writing anything else about you because i…"

"Draco," Ginny intervened, putting a hand on his arm placatingly, "It's ok. I know you didn't tell her about the dinner or anything, calm down," she said soothingly. "I mean, It did cross my mind at first," she admitted, blushing, "that you were where she'd gotten her information," she paused, but then seeing the look on his face, she added hastily, "and I'm sorry about that, because I should have known straight away instead of even allowing that second to- the article made it quite clear otherwise,"

"Right." Draco muttered, still acutely embarrassed by the way she was making him garble his sentences and make it difficult to think straight for long enough to explain himself. "Well, now that I've explained myself and you don't hate me again or anything, I'll just… get out of your hair and let you get to practice," he shifted his eyes down and began to turn away to allow her exit, but for some reason Ginny felt the sudden desire to stop him and grabbed his arm before he could get out of reach.

"Wait, Draco," she said, turning him back towards her. He gazed back at her searchingly, acutely aware of her physically so close to him. He bit down those thoughts.

"Maybe you could stick around for a bit… you know, if you want," she said lightly, giving him the option. "I'm sure the others wouldn't mind if you wanted to stay and watch practice,"

She felt a little jolt as his eyes flicked back to hers to give her a rather piercing look, and then he graced her with a very little smile, just a flicker as he continued to penetrate her with his intense gaze. "I'd like to stay and watch," he agreed.

"Ok, well I'll let you find your own way to the seats," she said a little nervously. Merlin, why had she just invited an audience? This was going to feel like a longer training session than she'd bargained for. "I need to get out there, the others are already at it,"

He gracefully stepped out of the door and allowed to pass quickly by with her broom, hurrying out into the arena and onto the pitch itself, wasting no time in taking off and flying up to where he could make out the rest of the team in a huddle close to one end of the pitch. Gradually he followed her path and sauntered over to the pitch himself, all the while not taking his eyes off of the flame-haired figure high overhead. Reaching the steps to the closest of the stands he jogged up them two at a time and took up one of the first seats he came to, not willing to climb any higher. He settled down to watch the practice.

As soon as Ginny took off she knew that her feeling in the changing room that this would be a long session had been correct; she felt it take hold and root within her. Usually when she took into the air on her broom she felt a freedom that was difficult to achieve elsewhere; a wild rush of happiness that came with flying and not having to worry about any of the issues in her life as they all just seemed to melt away. Not this time. She could feel his eyes on her as she rose up and angled her broom, feeling acutely aware of his judgement. Honestly; why would it matter if he was watching? She was used to playing to a crowd-packed stadium during their actual matches. This was just one person. She shook herself as she joined her teammates in the air. They all looked at her curiously as she came to a halt beside Jen.

"What?" she asked, suspicious.

"So what did Malfoy want?" Romola asked, smirking over at her. They were all looking at her attentively, which made her cheeks blush with consciousness.

"Just wanted to apologise for that stupid piece his friend wrote in her gossip column," she explained evasively.

"Is that him over in the stands watching us?" Jen asked, wide-eyed, indicating the subject of their conversation. Ginny just nodded meekly,

"I said he could stay and watch, if he liked," she said nervously, "I hope that's ok,"

"Course it is, this is perfect!" Jen answered for all of them enthusiastically before anyone else could get a chance, then streaked off on her broom and did a loop the loop. Romola and their keeper, Liv, rolled their eyes.

"Oh, honestly," Liv said, laughing merrily. "Such a show off,"

"Nice if you to join us, anyway, Ginny," Gwenog said briskly, trying to get them all focused back on the reason they were there. "Patrick has been working on some new tactics that he'd like to show us, so let's get to it."

They spent the next hour or so running through the new moves. Jennifer, Ginny, and their third chaser, Vittoria Cheng, were zipping round the field in formations between the other players, practising some dodging moves in particular. Ginny, darting in and out of the spaces between them with fierce concentration, quickly began to forget about the audience and settle into rhythm. They practised banding the Quaffle between the three of them in a rapid succession so that she was soon having to focus very hard on where they had moved to in relation to her and where she had to dodge to herself. All the focus helped to expel her nervousness and she found she was actually playing well. Jen seemed to be playing particularly energetically, darting around in a dizzying fashion beside her. Just then a bludger streaked past Ginny, sent by Romola to deliberately make her weave a bit more, and she had to veer off into a bit of a dive to avoid it hitting her in the face. Still, the sudden change in direction had made her lose her balance a little and she nearly toppled from her broom. She caught herself, though, and came to a halt, panting for breath.

"Careful, Gin!" Liv yelled from nearby, grinning at her.

"Sorry, didn't mean to hit that quite so harshly," Romola apologised, flying over.

"That's ok, that's your job," Ginny shook off her apology. "Maybe I'm not quite as on my game as I thought, today," she said, breathless.

"Nice dive, though, Gin!" Krum shouted in a somewhat gruff tone, swooping past.

"Yeah…" she turned up sharply on her broom, getting her posture back along with her balance. Her eye caught movement from the stands where Draco had gone to sit. She looked over and sought him out. He looked to have got up and moved right up to the front edge of the stand, leaning over the railings as he watched her. She couldn't make out his expression or anything more from so far away, but her heart gave a funny jolt to see it. Had he been concerned when she almost fell?

The rest of the training session went without a hitch, and they were soon landing back down on the ground as a group and packing away the equipment. There was lots of laughter and chatting amongst the team; well, amongst all of them except for Krum, who was never very talkative. Ginny almost forgot that Draco was there until she saw him walking over from the side, waiting for her.

Jen straightened up from packing the Quaffle away, giggling as she too noticed the arrival onto the grass. "Oh, don't look now Ginny, it's your new single-eligible-bachelor-type friend that you're going to introduce me to!" she said, taking her friend's arm and pulling her along towards Draco so that she could get her way.

Ginny could do nothing except let herself be dragged over to Draco to introduce her friend.

_End Part 5._

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I'm going to leave it there as this is already my longest chapter yet and I want to get it posted! We'll catch up with that next chapter, and we'll also be seeing Harry again I think. Please Review!


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